Who Speaks in Hands
by Carpe-Plectrum
Summary: Dr. W.D. Gaster was a brilliant scientist, a loving father, a trusted adviser to the King. His work on magical electricity and determination was unparalleled. It's a shame, really, how his life was cut short during the peak of his experiments. Funny how things happen like that.
1. Dark

"Your Highness?

"Your Highness, please.

"Asgore?"

The king didn't look up as the dark figure flickered and sparked in the doorway.

"It's not working, Gaster. Go ahead and say it."

The figure reappeared next to the figure curled on the steps. The king hadn't sat in his throne for weeks, now.

"It is not working," sighed Dr. Gaster. "All the subjects, all of the experiments. There have been some... interesting results-" The king's ear flicked, and the skeleton coughed nervously. "But they are not of importance. I don't have all the necessary materials."

"So, we're still trapped. The only way to get out of here is..."

"Seven human souls. There is a chance that humans might fall down here, but until then..."

Everything went black - the candles blew out, the sunlight vanished. Asgore sighed deeply.

"We must make do with what we have. _We need a stable power system_."

Asgore leaned away from the pinprick white pupils - the only source of light in the palace.

"Gaster, I already told you, I need your brains elsewhere. You're the Royal Scientist, not an electrician. If you-"

"My assistants are almost completely in control of the True Lab experiments, anyway." He walked away, his attention focused on a vase of golden flowers which almost glowed in the dark. "You have met Alphys, yes? She is already talking of her own set of experiments - fusing a living soul with an inanimate object, seeing if it produces any... results of interest."

Asgore wasn't even listening, relighting the candles one by one with his fire magic. Gaster hummed and flickered impatiently. For a second, Asgore saw double - one world where Gaster's silhouette stood in front of him, one where he was nowhere to be seen.

"What's the FUN VALUE?"

Gaster's eyes sparked, and all the candles lit up purple.

"Same as the last time _three times_ you asked. Sixty-six. It does not change for you, only for me."

Asgore smiled sadly. "I do believe you make all of that up."

Gaster's smile never changed. "If you want to believe that, you are welcome. In world 13, I don't exist, and Alphys has always been Royal Scientist. In world 42, you just ordered a pizza. In world 101, Toriel never-"

Asgore's eyes narrowed. "Never what?"

Everything froze for a second, and Gaster reappeared on the other side of the room. Asgore blinked.

"What were we talking about?"

"The CORE."

"You're electric experiment? Gaster, I said n-"

"It's not an experiment! It would be a safe, effective way to provide stable energy to the Underground. You need that. Your subjects need that."

Asgore paused, and Gaster tucked his hands into his pockets.

"Very well," he sighed. "But I will not throw all my funds into this. How does it run?"

"It would be a rather complex system of machinery flowing through quant-"

"Doctor Wingdings."

Gaster's pupils flickered purple.

"It runs on determination."

* * *

 **Hey guys! Bit of a teaser here- the first chapter should be up very soon. The incredible Toby Fox owns Undertale (and I am not him), and the cover image is by mnstrendy on Tumblr.**


	2. Darker

**A/N- Hiya, quick note – Just so you guys know, there will be several more mentions of things like the FUN value and alternate timelines, but if you don't know about that sort of thing, don't worry about it. I'll do my best to explain it in the story, and try not to make it too confusing. Thanks!**

"hey, dad."

"FATHER!"

Gaster grinned at the tiny skeleton wrapped around his foot.

"Hello, you two. How was school, Sans?"

The older of the two children shrugged. "eh, you know. nothin' new."

"Perhaps a better education system should be a priority," Gaster muttered to himself.

"FATHER!" shrieked the little skeleton, and Gaster picked him up.

"How are you, little one?"

"I AM GREAT! I AM THE GREAT 'PYRUS!"

"As always, Papyrus." He set the toddler down, and it waddled towards its brother, chanting "SANSY SANSY SANSY SANSY."

"Where's Mom?"

"hasn't come home yet. she had sentry duty today, so Gerson's probably keeping her late. ya know how he can be."

"I've never met someone who tells Gerson 'no'," said Gaster as he wandered the messy flat.

"Sans, how is your magic progressing? Any progress on that blue-"

An incredibly strong, invisible hand grabbed Gaster and slammed him against the opposite wall. The scientist lay stunned for a second, staring at the boy as his eyes glimmered blue. For a second, nothing happened.

Gaster started laughing, flickering back into his previous position.

"Impressive! Very impressive. Keep working on it, and you could become a boss monster." Sans eyes flashed with satisfaction as they faded back to normal.

"do all bosses have a special attack?"

"Most, not all. Others just have very, very fast and powerful normal attacks. Like the king, for example. But special attacks are very, very rare. Most monsters with special attacks become bosses."

Gaster pushed several papers and test tubes off the kitchen counter, simultaneously shuffling through the cupboard for ingredients. Sans blinked - for a second, it looked like there were two of his father, doing different things.

"how was your meeting with the king?"

"He's as obstinate as ever. Ever since Tor- well, he's been increasingly difficult to deal with. His mind is consumed with only one thing."

"what?"

"His quest. However, I think I might be getting my point across, finally. He's agreed to at least look into the project."

Sans nodded, looking away. He seemed… tense.

"Something on your mind?"

"today started over, a few hours after it began," he said, just loud enough for Gaster to hear. "no one else noticed. did... did someone reset it?"

Papyrus shrieked from the next room, but both older skeletons ignored him.

".i. .sensed. .too." he said slowly, forming the words in sign language, in Wingdings, instead of saying them out loud.

".only. .we. .can. .sense. .resets **.** .you. .cannot. .tell. .anyone **.** .not. .papyrus., .not. .mother **.** .king. .doesn't. . know **.** " He hesitated.

".only. .humans. .can. .reset **.** "

".does. .that. ?mean?"

".don't. .know **.** .can't. .sense. .any., .not. .my. .power **.** .unless. .I. .hear…"

"FATHER?"

"Papyrus, come here!" The baby flickered, then reappeared on the counter, giggling.

"THAT TICKLES, FATHER!"

Gaster flickered around the kitchen, chuckling. "A little, yes. What shall we cook for Mummy? How about some spaghetti?"

"WHAT'S SPOO- SPOOGETI?"

"Spag-hetti. I'll show you how to make it. It'll take a while, so drink your milk. It'll make you big and strong."

Sans wrinkled his nose, pushing his cup towards Papyrus. Gaster smiled. "If you don't drink your milk, Papyrus will be bigger than you when he grows up."

"yeah, right."

Papyrus cheered squeakily, watching his father boil noodles and cut up tomatoes.

"you have a special attack, dad."

"In a way, yes." Gaster vanished and reappeared with a jar of herbs.

"so aren't you a boss monster?"

"Yes, but my abilities have less to do with fighting and more to do with the FUN- well, what we were talking about earlier."

Sans nodded, frowning.

A glass of milk flew across the room.

"dad?" he said, his voice strained. His eyes glowed impossibly, vividly blue. Gaster's eyes lit up purple.

"I feel it too. Stay here with Papyrus."

"dad, what-" Sans grit his teeth, pulling the baby closer.

Gaster threw the door of the house open, pausing time just for a second.

There was his wife, Lucida, her bow in hand, her armor shining. There was a small creature - a bipedal whose type he had not seen in a long time, whose face displayed only one emotion.

Determination.

There was a knife gripped in its hand, already stained with blood.

"Get out of my way," said the human.

"You're coming with me, to the Capital," said Lucida, cold authority tinging her voice.

"Move, or I'll kill you."

"It can't lose," muttered Gaster, and Lucida glanced at him.

"Wingdings! Get the kids, teleport out of here."

"IT CAN RESET!" he shouted. "YOU CAN'T BEAT IT! GET OUT OF HERE!"

The human - only a child, really - looked up at him - no fear, no anger. Its eyes were dead, and a purple soul floated out in front of its chest.

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?" she demanded, loosing a volley of arrows which spun around the soul, nearly cornering it.

Gaster ran next to her, blasting it with a beam of white light. Lucida kept shooting next to him.

Then, it was gone.

Lucida stuck an arrow back in her quiver.

"We did it. Look." There was no joy in her voice, no excitement, only a tinge of grim satisfaction. The purple soul hovered in midair, the same dark shade as Gaster's special attack. He nodded silently.

She kissed him softly. "Hey, it's ok. We did what we had to do. Watched that psycho kill a Woshua and a Temmie. A _Temmie!_ I chased it, tracked it, don't even know how it ended up in front of our house. Wasn't paying attention to that part."

"I'm so sorry."

"Why? What was all that stuff you kept saying, about... resetting?"

Her eyes flashed green for a second. "Wingdings?"

"mom?"

"Sans? Is everything - wait - what happened?"

"what do you-"

"YOUR HP IS SEVEN, WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M TALKING ABOUT?"

"what? oh. i didn't notice."

Green light began swirling around Lucida's hands as she stepped towards her son. "How in the world could you not-"

Sans pulled away, looking back towards his father, his fists still clenched, his eyes completely dark.

"what's going to-"

"FATHER!"

Gaster blinked at the tiny skeleton wrapped around his leg. Lucida was nowhere to be seen. Sans looked sick as his father walked into the flat.

"Hello, Pappy," said Gaster, his voice empty of emotion. "How are you?"

"I AM GREAT! I AM THE GREAT 'PYRUS!"

"it's going to come back," said Sans, his voice as dull as his father's. "it's going to keep coming back until it wins."

"SANSY?" asked Papyrus. Sans looked down at his brother.

"go play, ok kid?" he said softly. "i need to talk to dad."

Papyrus narrowed his eyes, then wandered off into the next room. Gaster knelt in front of Sans.

"I'm sorry you have to go through this. I'm sorry you understand all of this. It's much more than I would ever expect of you, especially at your age..."

Sans closed his eyes for a second. "we're marked now, aren't we? mom, paps... they don't know. it'll keep dying and coming back again and again until it kills us all and-"

"No. It's not like that. Humans only have so much determination. It can only die so many times before it loses the will to live, four or five, at the most. Other than..." He hesitated.

"other than what?"

"You do not need-"

"dad." Sans closed his eyes for a second. "i need to know."

Gaster paused, looking down at his son. Sans was only a child, barely eleven years old. Gaster didn't know about any of it until he was twice his age, at least.

"I have not told you everything I can do, but... sometime in the future, a human will come who has almost limitless determination. The last human, they are called. The delta angel. The one who will decide the fate of our kind."

Sans eyes sparked with panic. "Is it that one? The one that's trying to kill-"

"No. They are-" His voice echoed with static as he flickered in and out of existence. "They are red."

Something crashed outside, Papyrus shrieked from the next room, and this time both skeletons heard him clearly.

"MUMMY!"

".PROTECT. !BROTHER!" snapped Gaster in Wingdings, almost too fast to see.

Lucida was standing a little ways off, dodging the human's swipes and releasing arrows as fast as she could. Her armor was already dented, and her helmet had fallen off somewhere. Had she been this beat up in the last reset?

The human was muttering under its breath - harsh words, cruel words, as it continued forward slowly, its eyes full of endless perseverance.

Lucida was still backing up, trying to keep enough distance between them to get an accurate shot. A knife grazed her skull, dark ectoplasm dripped down on her armor. She grinned nervously, and the human continued stepping forward, sidestepping her arrows as if it had all of her fight sequences memorized.

Gaster tried to step forward, but… he couldn't. It was like he was trapped between two panels of glass. He couldn't move, couldn't shout to his wife.

"You cannot interfere in this fight," whispered a cruel voice in his skull. "You cannot stop fate, Doctor Wingdings."

He gasped for breath, trying to pull away from the invisible vines tightening around his neck and arms. He was able to pull one arm free.

"Surrender, and I will spare you!" shouted Lucida. "I do not wish to kill you!"

"I do," sneered the human, its words inflicting physical pain on the warrior in front of it.

".determination." signed Gaster weakly, and Lucida turned to look at him, horror crossing her face as she looked over his shoulder.

"WHAT IS-"

She wasn't facing the human.

Confusion broke through the surprise, just for a moment, as she looked down at the knife stuck in her soul.

Purple light exploded from in front of the house - lighting up the road, lighting up the sky. Gaster stepped in front of her form, free of the invisible bonds, his eyes glowing purple. Two vague, horrific shapes, like horned skulls, hovered behind him.

 **[you don't remember how you got here.]**

 **[you feel like you're about to have a bad time.]**


	3. Yet Darker

Two blasts.

It was over in less than a round - two simple blasts of pure white energy, and there was nothing but a broken purple soul hovering in front of him.

And a small mound of black dust behind him.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm so sorry. I couldn't - I should have-"

"mom?"

Gaster looked up, dark tears still leaking down his skull. Sans stood in front of him, his HP dropping slowly as he stared at the dust on the pavement.

"you didn't save her."

His voice was soft, full of quiet malice, his eyes were black and pupiless. Gaster didn't answer.

"i saw. you're a boss monster, and you just stood there and watched her die. you distracted her!"

Gaster didn't move, kneeling in front of Lucida's ashes, black tears dripping onto the pavement and evaporating in a sizzle.

"I - I tried, but-"

"Mummy?"

Sans spun around as Papyrus toddled out into the road. The baby's voice was softer than he had ever heard it.

"Sans? Where's Mummy?"

Sans closed his eyes.

"go back inside, papyrus."

"What's it doing?"

Sans froze.

The purple soul was coming back together - the two split halves reforming and rising into the air.

It was beginning to disappear.

He reached out, but Gaster came from nowhere, grabbing it and cupping it in his hands.

"NO."

It was less of a word, more of a roar, purple tendrils swirling around his hands as it tried to rip away.

"You cannot fight me," he growled, his teeth clenched, his hands glowing. "I am master of the Friction in the UNiverse. You killed my wife. I will erase you from this world and every other reality. _Stay_ _dead_."

His hands were melting - the determination in the soul eating through them like acid. His bones were almost gone - huge holes were burnt straight through the middle of them. The soul slipped through.

And slammed against the pavement, dark blue.

Gaster stumbled to the ground, turning to look at Sans. The boy frowned, then looked behind him.

Papyrus still stood there, his hands out, palms facing the frozen soul. The baby stared at his father with a look which neared determination.

"WHERE'S MUMMY?"

* * *

"So, it's true. More humans can and will fall down. For one to make it all the way to Waterfall without getting caught it serious indeed."

Asgore looked down the table at the counsel - the meager government he had formed. Gaster - the Royal Scientist. Gerson - the Captain of the Guard. A small dog asleep in the middle of the table. A few advisors, representatives, and other guards.

Gerson pushed up his visor, clearing his throat.

"There were four casualties, from what we gathered, Your Highness."

Asgore's head drooped.

"Who were they?"

"A Froggit, a Temmie, a Woshua, and ... a," his eyes lit up with anger. "A Royal Guardsman."

Alphys squeaked in fear, and Asgore's head shot up.

"She fought valiantly, and in doing so, was able to kill it," said the old warrior. "She was a true hero."

"She shall be honored. What was her name?"

Gerson hesitated.

"Lieutenant Lucida Gaster."

Asgore turned towards his Royal Scientist, who flickered in and out of existence, quietly wiping one of his eyes with a mutilated hand. The soul had burned two identical, perfect circles straight through his palms. He had managed to keep it from resetting, managed to keep the awful cycle of death from happening all over again. Given a third chance, the human might have killed the rest of his family, too.

Asgore's eyes burned in silent fury as he looked at the soul in the glass case.

"What shall we do with it, then?"

There was a pause. One of the Royal Guardsmen, a trainee named Undyne, opened her mouth, but she suddenly forgot what she was about to say.

"With your permission, I will take it," said Gaster. "I'd like to run some... tests. There are some curious differences between monster souls and human souls, and I would like to confirm a hypothesis. I will return it to you for safekeeping, unharmed, the moment I am done."

Undyne glared at him.

"It should not take long," he added.

Asgore thought for a second, then nodded. "No resurrections this time, right, Doctor Wingdings?" he said in a weak attempt at a joke.

"Quite the opposite, sir," said Gaster.

"Very well. You may take the soul to your laboratory, Gaster. This trumps any work on your... CORE, correct?"

Another version of Gaster appeared next to the king, carefully picking up the coffin and vanishing with it. The scientist grinned.

"I'm an excellent multitasker, Your Highness."

* * *

"Doctor Wingdings Gaster. Royal Scientist, Genius Extraordinaire. Supposedly, you earned all your degrees in the human world. You really that old?"

Gaster didn't look up from the blueprints scattered across his desk.

"It was barely twenty years ago. Are you really that young?" A black figure flickered in front of the visitor, too fast for her to see.

"Undyne, isn't it? What do you want?"

"What do I want? You know what? I was given orders to protect you and assist you in your work."

"In case you haven't noticed, I have four lab assistants, two of which have doctorates from the human world."

Undyne frowned thoughtfully. "Yeah? Well, King Asgore wants to make sure nothing bad happens during your experiments."

"Does he think that I do not know what I'm doing?"

"Fuhuhu! No, but he wants to know what you're doing. He's the king, after all. I'll bet he's curious." She grinned. "He's so cool!"

He ignored her, bending back over his work. She leaned over his shoulder.

"Is that a skull?"

"No, it's a DTEX."

"What-"

"I'd like some quiet, and I'm sure you'd like to remain a physical entity in this reality."

Undyne shut her mouth, pacing in front of the Lab door, twirling her spear.

Gaster scribbled some notes, then turned to the glass canister.

"Determination," he muttered. Undyne looked over at him.

"Huh?"

"They can persist after death. Monster souls cannot. They have a quality, called determination. It keeps them going, keeps them alive. It could be incredibly… useful. Now, what is it?"

"What's determination?"

"Exactly." He rubbed hus temples. "This doesn't make any sense."

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" Undyne jumped up on the table. "YOU'RE THE ROYAL SCIENTIST! YOU KNOW EVERYTHING! YOU'RE GONNA FIGURE IT OUT, THEN USE YOUR NERDY SCIENCE SKILLS TO SAVE US ALL!"

The lab door creaked open, and a little grey creature in a lab coat peeked in.

"D-doctor Gaster?"

Undyne flipped off of the table and pointed her spear. "WHATDAYA WANT?"

Gaster's follower squeaked, but a burst of purple light swirled around them, freezing both figures for a second. Gaster appeared between them (with another version still sitting at his desk) and lowered Undyne's spear.

"This is Lakys. I need him, no impaling."

Undyne blinked, looking back at the scientist working on his blueprints.

"How do you do that?"

The Gaster in front of her vanished, and the original sighed. "I don't have the time to explain right now. Lakys, do you have those reports?"

He glanced back at the two younger monsters, staring at him curiously. He sighed again.

"In an extreme oversimplification, I am able to temporarily project my thoughts as a physical being to speak, observe, or perform tasks."

"So you're basically splitting yourself in half or whatever for a while instead of getting up?"

"Yes."

"Fuhuhuhu! That's cool!"

"Lakys?"

"Oh! Yeah, um..." He scurried over and placed several papers on the table.

Undyne peered at them, then frowned at the blueprints.

"Is that your handwriting?"

Gaster closed his eyes for a second.

"Why's it look like that? Those aren't even letters!"

"It's Wingdings."

"That's your name."

"Oh, I wasn't aware."

"Also a form of sign language," piped Lakys. "Basically... he's writing in sign language."

"Huh, that's weird. Why're you named after sign-"

The room blazed with purple light.

Undyne glanced around the hallway, confused. Lakys was sitting on the floor, next to her.

"Hey! What were we doing?"

Lakys sighed.

"Hate it when that happens. I... don't remember."

"Doesn't matter. I'm probably supposed to be guarding this hallway anyway, so," She motioned with her spear. "Continue on your business, civilian!"

Gaster leaned back in his chair, spinning a pencil.

"Determination. If that's what makes a soul strong, then..." He vanished, reappearing in front of his personal assistant and handing her a bundle of scrolls.

"Build this. It's strictly confidential - no one can know other than ourselves and the other scientists." He hesitated. "Not even Asgore."

* * *

 **A/N - T** **hank you guys _so much_ for all the support. **Lakys is Gaster Follower #1, whom I could not find a name for.** Comments, questions, criticisms? Please review. Stay determined!**


	4. The Darkness

"SANS?"

"yeah, paps?"

"WHEN SHOULD FATHER RETURN?"

Sans didn't move from his position on the couch, curled in the fetal position.

"according to the traditional 9am to 5pm work shift... six days ago."

Papyrus clambered up on top of his brother, burying his face in his soft hoodie.

"I MISS HIM. I MISS MUMMY, TOO."

Sans pulled his brother into a hug. "me too. at least i've still got you. i'm gonna go make you something to eat, ok?"

"NO MORE HOT DOGS! HOW ABOUT..." he narrowed his eyes. "SP- SPOOGETI?"

Sans paused, halfway off the couch. Papyrus looked up at him.

"IS THAT A REAL FOOD?"

"yeah, it is. i don't know how to make it, though."

"I WANNA HELP!"

"sure, bro." Sans wandered into the kitchen and began pulling out ingredients.

"I KNEW IT WASN'T A DREAM!"

Sans dropped a jar of herbs, catching it with his magic before it shattered on the ground. "what wasn't a dream?"

Papyrus climbed up on the counter, grabbing a raw noodle to chew on.

"I DREAMED FATHER WAS MAKING SPOOGETI FOR US!"

"when?"

"A MONTH AGO, MAYBE? RIGHT AFTER MUMMY... AFTER MUMMY..."

Sans rubbed his head. "i understand. maybe dad made it once when you were a tiny babybones, and you're just now remembering."

Papyrus sniffed. "MAYBE. ARE YOU SAD, SANS?"

The older skeleton grinned. "me? nah. i'm making spaghetti with the coolest dude around, why would i be sad?"

Papyrus smiled weakly. "THAT'S GOOD. I LIKE WHEN YOU'RE NOT SAD."

"well then, i'll never be sad again."

The power flickered out.

Sans sighed, flicking a few switches on the stove. "so much for that. maybe it'll come back on sooner than last time."

A bone appeared in front of him, shining blue and lighting up the kitchen with an eerie glow. Papyrus glanced at him nervously, palms out.

"I DON'T LIKE THE DARK," he whimpered.

Somewhere down the hall, the door swung open. The glowing bone vanished, and Sans' eyes flashed.

".stay." he signed in Wingdings, pressing the symbols into his brother's hand to avoid saying anything out loud in the dark. Papyrus nodded, shivering as he crawled beneath the counter. Sans crept forward, extinguishing his eye, watching as a tall figure slipped through the doorway into the house.

" ."

The voice was a cold hiss, full of menace, that surprised Sans even as he said it. It was not the voice of a child.

"Sans?"

A purple flame lit up Gaster's hand. Sans frowned.

"it's you."

Gaster blinked. "Of course. Was that your voice? How did you-"

"what are you doing here?"

"I live here."

"where have you been? in case you forgot to glance at your watch, it's been SIX DAYS since you last came home. did you forget that you have two kids?"

"I've been busy. I'm sorry."

"FATHER?"

Papyrus clung to Sans' leg, staring at his father with something bordering distrust.

"Papyrus?"

Gaster knelt in front of him, but the child didn't move. Gaster suppressed a sigh, then stood back up.

"well? what have you been working on, then?"

"Many things. I do not have time to explain them all right now." Sans' eyes grew dark.

"The CORE, for one," said Gaster as he walked into the kitchen. "It's more urgent than the others. Our primary goal may be to get out of the underground, but we have to make sure we're alive to do so when it happens. And I am still running tests on the human soul. In a way, the projects are intertwined. They are both reliant on determination."

"so were you able to figure the stuff out?" Sans' voice was still tinged with resentment, but his father didn't seem to notice.

"Not quite, but I have all the information I need to know about it." He glanced around the messy flat - the lack of an adult figure clearer than ever.

"You have been going to school, haven't you?"

Sans looked away. "papyrus has."

"Sans, your soul is still developing! Your education is so important right now - you'll need a job, you'll need to know how to fight!"

"so what, i can just die over and over again when the next human waltzes through?" His eyes flickered blue, and Papyrus whimpered nervously.

"So you can take care of your brother," said Gaster softly.

Sans picked up his sibling, shifting him so his feet didn't brush the floor.

"glad to know you plan to be involved in his life."

Gaster began to follow his son, but paused as the door slammed shut in his face.

"I'm not good at this, Lucy," he muttered. "I don't know what to do, how to care for them."

"SANS? WHAT HAPPENED?"

"it was a bit of an argument, bro. don't worry 'bout it. everything's gonna turn out fine."

"DON'T FIGHT WITH FATHER, SANS. IT JUST MAKES YOU SAD."

He put a small hand over Sans' chest, right over his soul.

"You must not be sad," whispered Papyrus.

Sans sat down on the floor, curling up with his little brother.

The door creaked up, and he tightened his grip on Papyrus. Gaster stood in the doorway, holding two plates of spaghetti apologetically.

"I-" he began, flickering uncertainly. Sans tilted his head to one side, and Papyrus sniffed the air.

The plates reappeared on the ground in front of them, and Gaster quickly shut the door.

"SPOOGETI?" asked Papyrus cautiously. Sans nodded, spinning the noodles on his plate cautiously with one bony finger.

"FATHER MADE US SPOOGETI!"

"yeah. huh. you eat your spaghetti, i'll be right back."

He slipped out in the hallway.

"dad?"

One Gaster was washing dishes, one standing at the counter writing something down, one was sweeping. Sans paused.

"Yes?" said the one at the counter. The other two disappeared, letting the broom clatter to the floor and the dishes fall in the sink.

"sorry 'bout what i said earlier."

"I'm the one who should apologize. I shouldn't just abandon you. No experiments, no potential breakthroughs, not even the possibility of getting to the Surface should be more important to me than the two of you."

Sans smiled wearily.

"Have you eaten anything, son?"

"no. not hungry. can you tell me more about it?"

Gaster hesitated, watching his son's expression, then they were both on the couch.

"About what?"

"your powers. the FUN VALUE. on... on that day, you said something about how you are 'the master of the friction in the universe'. what was that about?"

"That's what FUN stands for, the same way HP stands for hope and LV stands for level of violence. I... I can sense it. This isn't the only timeline, you know. there's over a hundred. most are nearly identical, but a few..." He closed his eyes for a second.

"I can sense all of them. I know how each of them are different. I'm stretched across space and time, about to snap apart. I know little of the future, but I can sense when something bad is about to happen. You can too, can't you?"

The boy winced.

"It takes most of my energy and HP, but I am able to pull something out of a timeline, if I need to. I could erase them completely, which would shift us, all of us, to a different FUN LEVEL. I can smooth or add friction in the universe. With caution, of course. If you play around with time and space, you can only blame yourself when things start to go wrong."

"why don't you? couldn't you have pushed the human out of this timeline? can't you save mom by, i don't know, pulling her back in, somehow?"

"Because I only tried one other time and it ended in catastrophic failure."

"when?"

"During the war."

Gaster closed his eyes.

"I didn't fully understand what it meant, erasing someone. All the devastating effects it has on reality. I didn't understand my power. Never use your strongest attack first, my child."

"can you teach me?"

Gaster opened one eye. Sans stared up at him.

"school's ok, but all the stuff on fighting's super vague. there's nothing about special attacks, or boss monsters, or any of that. if more humans come, if papyrus turns out to be a boss too..."

Gaster hesitated, flickering. "I can. You have telekinesis, at least, which is incredibly powerful. Have you tried teleportation?"

Sans shook his head. Suddenly, they were outside, a misty light clinging to them in the darkness.

"won't people see us?"

"The power is out. They would all be huddled up in their beds, afraid of any noises they may here from outside. There are beings worse than monsters, after all." His eyes lit up purple.

Sans blazed cyan in return. "and if one of those things shows up?"

"It would be excellent practice. What's your current HP?"

"doesn't really matter, does it?"

"It matters tremendously."

Sans' eyes sparked as he glared at his father. "five."

Gaster blinked. "What? When was your last time getting healed? When was your last battle?"

"no, you don't get it. that's its max. i haven't gotten anything higher than five since mom died."

The light slowly faded from Gaster's eyes.

"I cannot teach you. You can never be a warrior."

Sans lit up the street with his anger.

"FIGHT ME!"

Gaster said nothing, and Sans slammed him against the mailbox. The two giant skulls swarmed up on either side up him, but he quickly extinguished them.

"You can never face a human. If you take one hit in battle, you could die!"

Sans looked back at the house. "then i'll die protecting him."

A bone whistled past his ear, almost grazing his skull. He looked up.

"That was a warning shot. Don't expect as much from an enemy."

Sans grinned, summoning a wall of bones and pushing it towards his father. Gaster teleported through it, sending his own missiles in rapid succession. Sans dodged them, noting with a little annoyance how small they were. He could sidestep them easily.

"how'd you get those blasters?"

"focus on what you love, more than anything else in the world. What you're fighting for. Who you're fighting for. The more you use them, the more powerful they'll become." The two giant, dragon-like skulls reappeared behind the scientist and shot two massive beams of white energy at Sans.

Just before they reached him, he vanished.

Gaster froze the beams, looking around wildly. He would never have let them really reach his son, but now...

A small beam of energy hit him in the back of his head, and he turned around. Sans stood there, still grinning, two smaller blasters of his own floating next to him.

"huh, it's easy. just thinking about something you love, imagining if something bad were to happen to them..." His eyes went dark. "love can produce LV, i guess."

"That's one way to say it," said Gaster. "How did you teleport?"

"i - i don't know. it just kind of happened."

"Well, it worked."

The sky lit up in a sudden blaze of stars. Gaster smiled sadly at the sputtering electric lights - the stalactites just visible through the hazy magic curtain.

"Sans?"

"yeah?"

"I'm proud of you, my son."

"thanks, dad." The blue glow faded from Sans' eyes. "i had a blast."


	5. Keeps Growing

"D-Doctor, what's-"

"HIYA!"

"Don't worry about it, Lakys."

Gaster's follower wrung his hands. "Why-I mean… is this even…"

"apparently, it's 'take you kid to work day'. crazy, right?"

"Doctor, these are your… children?"

Gaster looked up from his notes and stared at the scientist for several seconds. Next to him, Papyrus was drawing a detailed self-portrait on a set of blueprints. Sans was levitating several dented microscopes on the other side of the room.

"Yes. They are. What did you need?"

Lakys' eyes followed one microscope as it spun in the air, engulfed in a hazy, light magic. Suddenly, a bolt of dark blue flew towards it, enveloping it.

It crashed to the ground. Lakys winced. Papyrus giggled.

"Sir, I'm not sure if they're allowed to-

" _It's fine_ ," said Gaster, his voice much deeper, overlaid with static.

"Ah – oh… ok."

"Do you need anything?"

"No… not really. Alphys needs to talk to you about… something, she didn't say what, the final diagnostics have been run on the SOUL, I received a confirmation that those supplies are on their way from Snowdin, and…" He glanced towards the hall.

"The king is requesting a short meeting."

Gaster didn't look up from the pages of formulas he was studying.

"Very well, I will visit New Home later this afternoon. Send me the diagnostics, if you would." He wrote something down, then crossed it out. Lakys shook his head.

"No. The king… he's out in the hall right now."

" _What_?"

"Should I tell him to come in?"

"Wait." He pointed at Sans. "Get on his shoulders."

Sans glanced at him incredulously, then hoisted Papyrus on his shoulders. Gaster flicked his hand, and a lab coat wrapped around the pair.

"Don't say anything," he warned, and Papyrus giggled, sticking his arms through the sleeves. Lakys rubbed his eyes.

"You know, that's not going to fool him at all."

"It will for fifteen seconds. Bring him in."

"He'll see you now, your Highness."

"Howdy, Gaster! Why, who's this?"

Papyrus swayed, but Gaster cleared his throat. "Lab assistant. What did you need, Your Highness?"

"I just wanted to say hi, and ask how you were doing. It's been so long, Wingdings, you've been so busy!" He glanced over at Papyrus again. "You ought to come over for tea sometime."

"Yes, perhaps. But as you said, I am very busy, so if you don't mind-"

"And who are you?" Asgore asked Papyrus. "I don't believe-"

Papyrus squeaked and fell. The king jumped back as the lab coat exploded and the two skeletons fell out.

"Well, well! It appears that your lab assistant was, in fact…" He helped Sans to his feet, grinning as the boy blushed furiously. "Two children in a lab coat."

"So much for no questions asked," muttered Gaster.

"Why, Wingdings, are they yours? I didn't know." Asgore crouched to get on eye level, and smiled at them. Papyrus clutched Sans' sleeve, staring at the king.

"What are your names?"

"yeah, you're right. i'm sans, and this is-"

"PAPYRUS! I'M PAPYRUS!"

"Howdy! It's very nice to meet you two!" Asgore stood up. "Are you training to become scientists like your father?"

"NO, FATHER WILL ALWAYS BE THE ROYAL SCIENTIST. SOME DAY, I'M GOING TO JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD, LIKE MUMMY!"

"I'm honored, Papyrus. That's a very important job. What about you, Sans?"

"eh, i don't know." He winked. "i might be a little overqualified for the job, seeing that the current scientist has been writing out some pretty basic physics equations all wrong for the last several minutes."

"No I-" Gaster squinted at his page, and scribbled out several lines. "No I haven't!"

Papyrus and the king laughed.

"Asgore…" said Gaster, his teeth clenched, "it's good to see you again, but I'm trying to work, and I need to focus. That's difficult enough already, so if you _don't mind…_ "

Asgore sighed, rubbing Papyrus' head. "Looks like your father is kicking me out. Hope to see you soon!" Sans waved, still grinning.

"And I meant it," he said as he turned to leave. "You really oughta take a break. Soon."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"I mean it. Come for tea. Bye!"

"WOWIE, HE SEEMED COOL!"

"How did you know those equations were wrong?"

Sans shrugged. "don't make sense. besides, you have 'em written correctly at the top of the page. and don't look at me like that, the thinking is your job, not mine. i was just makin' an observation."

"Yes… very interesting."

Someone tapped on the door, and it flew open. A yellow lizard-type in a lab coat flinched. Gaster sat up.

"Is it time?"

"Y-yeah. It is."

"Stay here, you two." Gaster swept up a bundle of papers and vanished. Sans unfolded a blueprint, his eyes widening at the complex twist of machinery.

One word was written across the top -

"this thing's going to be huge," he muttered.

"WHAT IS IT?" Papyrus clambered up on top of the table. "WOWIE! THE CORE! WHAT'S THAT ONE?"

Sans flipped over another page, frowning at the skull-shaped machine. was written across the top.

"that's pretty intense. D-T-E-X. Don't know what that's about."

"LOOK!"

Papyrus pointed at another word, scribbled across the bottom. It was in the Common Language – shakily written in sparkly ink.

"Completed."

* * *

"This shall be it, then. Perhaps this machine will be a godsend."

Gaster nodded slowly, holding the glass jar. "After all this time, we will see where our research has led us."

Gaster's follower, a lab tech named Tropet, brushed aside her headscarf and hummed to herself. "Whatever happens, however this ends, I was always happy to be called your friend."

"I'm touched," he said, taking several steps closer to the machine, leaning precariously out over the railing. It was an abyss, down at the bottom. Not even Alphys, who built it, was sure how deep it was. Deep inside of him, a gnawing feeling began to grow. Something was about to happen.

"Watch out, Doctor!" shrieked Dubius, his engineer, from the control panel. "You could fall..."

Gaster stood up straight, opening the jar and dumping the soul into the machine. It hovered there, for a moment, then began to glow brightly.

"Turn on the Determination Extractor, Dubius."

Shrieking laughter erupted from the machine - no. It was just the sound of the metal reacting to the magic. Gaster gripped the railing, peering in. The soul quivered, but didn't melt or fall apart through the tremendous stress. Tendrils of some sort of liquid evaporated off of it, and he raised a hand.

Dubius turned off the machine, peering around the screens as Gaster reached up into the machine and pulled out a syringe. A red... substance, of some sort, swirled inside of it.

"Repeat the procedure four times," he said, "Or until either the machine or the soul begins to show signs of distress. Then return the soul to Asgore, in the jar, the way it was."

"Doctor Gaster, it wasn't a disaster! Now that you know, where will you go?" asked Tropet.

Gaster held up the syringe, the determination.

"I've got what I need. I don't expect you to need me anymore, for the time being."

* * *

There were six of them, at least. Probably more. All doing magic, different kinds of magic, at the same time.

"Hey punk, what do you think you're doing?"

"Look, it's everyone's favorite Royal Guard."

Undyne twirled her spear. "I'm not a Royal Guard. I'm a trainee. I'm being taught by King Asgore himself."

"Oh, silly me, I keep getting the timelines mixed up." Gaster didn't look up from the blueprints floating around him, and his clones didn't stop their work.

"So, what's it this time? If Asgore wanted to see what I'm up to, he could come down himself. I built an elevator for that very purpose, after all."

"No, it's not Asgore. It's... something else. What is this place?"

Gaster took off his glasses, and his clones disappeared. "In case you weren't aware, splitting your psyche among many different beings is a delicate task which requires your full attention. You can tell whoever you're working for that this is Project 1. If they don't understand, they don't need too."

He glanced up at her, his permanent smile widening slowly.

"Oh, so it's you."

"What?!"

"You came on your own accord. Your curiosity must be very strong if it is not completely overpowered by all that excess aggression."

"Me? Curious? As if I'm some sort of nerd?! Fuhuhu! That's rich!"

Gaster's doubles reappeared all around him, continuing to work on the giant machine's skeleton. Undyne peered at the blueprints, trying to figure them out. They were covered in those crazy symbols - Webdings? No, Wingdings! Pictures of hands and skulls and bombs and... mailboxes?

"The CORE is a machine which will provide stable, magical electricity. It is incredibly important to make sure that all of the Underground is provided with good lighting and stable temperatures."

"If it's so important, why aren't people helping you?"

"Because King Asgore gave me next to no funding, and I don't trust other people."

"Oh."

She looked up at the peak - the highest point in the Underground, with the Barrier glowing softly at the top. By the time it was done, the giant CORE would be the, well, the very core of the kingdom.

"It must not be too important, if the king doesn't care about it. He knows what's best, right?"

"The king was a good man who has since been blinded by grief and vengeance. Many times he cannot distinguish between the greater good and the greatest good."

Undyne's eyes glowed yellow as she glared at him - ready to interrupt, not sure what to say. Gaster traced a finger over the blueprints, pausing over a tiny square right in the middle of the picture. One symbol was in the middle - a hand, the thumb pointing down. He stuck his hand in his pocket.

"I need to confer with the king. Do not," his voice took a dangerous tone, overlaid with static. "Touch. Anything. Do not let anyone else touch anything. Understood?"

She nodded vigorously, twirling her spear. "If anything tries to mess with your stuff, they'll have to go through me!"

He vanished without a word, and Undyne began pacing in front of the door of the elevator. She wouldn't touch it. No one would. She'd guard it, super hard! Then when Gaster came back, he'd be so pleased he might even tell...

"H-hello? Doctor G-gaster?"

Undyne flipped down the visor of her helmet and threw her spear, aiming it so it landed right next to the monster coming around the corner.

The monster - a small, yellow lizard-type in a lab coat - yelped and hid her face.

"WHO ARE YOU, AND WHADAYA WANT?"

"M- me? I- I'm just looking for my boss, h-he said he'd - he'd be around here somewhere..."

A lab coat equipped with an intern lanyard. Undyne grinned. "You're working for Gaster, arencha, nerd? He just left! What's your name?"

The small dinosaur peered at her cautiously, wringing her claws.

"I- I'm Alphys."

* * *

 **A/N- (Mildly unrelated note but does anyone else kind of feel bad for Asgore? He's just a goat dad trying to do the best for his people and completely overwhelmed with guilt.)**

 **This one is a little choppy. Hope it makes sense. Anyway, thank you for reading, please review if you've got anything to say or questions to ask. Thank you!**


	6. The Shadows

"SANS? SANS? WHERE'D YOU GO?"

He wasn't in Waterfall anymore. The cool, gentle darkness with its earthy smells and soft sounds was gone. Papyrus had only left Waterfall once, but he was with his family and had ended up somewhere completely different. The wind laughed and screamed around him, whipping the child back and forth across the endless white plain. It was so, so cold.

No villages, no trees. He couldn't even see the ceiling. The snow was higher than his kneecaps. His brother had vanished. No one could hear him.

He stumbled, collapsing into the snow, tears freezing in his eyes before they had a chance to fall. Sleet beat down on him, like little bullets. There was nothing but white.

He was alone.

"Sans?" he whimpered.

Ice.

Wind.

Laughter.

Darkness.

So, so cold.

Warmth.

Light.

What?

Papyrus opened his eyes, squinting up at the creature in front of him. Light - brighter than the electric lights at home, brighter than the stars. After so long in darkness, he flinched away.

A soft, rattling hiss.

"?hurt?"

It wasn't the Common Language, but he had heard it before, a long time ago. An odd language – half gestures, half noises. He moved towards the creature, getting warmer. The snow didn't sting as much, anymore.

".not. .hurt."

The creature crackled in surprise, lifting the small skeleton back on his feet. Papyrus looked up at him.

It was an elemental, the first he had ever seen. The man was made of fire - no face or other features to speak of, but he didn't seem dangerous. Papyrus turned over his hand, staring at the light, but it didn't burn him. The ice melted from between his fingers.

".seen. ?brother?" crackled Papyrus, reverting back to the language he didn't even know he knew.

".only. .you." replied the elemental, pushing his glasses up his nonexistent nose. ".come."

"I HAVE TO FIND MY BROTHER!"

Papyrus pulled away from the monster, tripping facefirst into the snow. The elemental picked him up.

".I. .find.. .storm. .dangerous."

"WHERE AM I? WHO ARE YOU?"

".snowdin.. .I. .grillby.. ?you?"

".papyrus." he whimpered, pressing against Grillby's chest. The elemental looked around, then ran back in the direction he came.

* * *

"PAPYRUS? PAPYRUS?" screamed Sans, his eyes glowing as he sprinted through the storm. He had just wanted to take a walk, he hadn't realized they were wandering, hadn't noticed his brother slip away until there was no sign of him...

Nothing but wind,

snow,

cold.

His soul glowed blue, shining like a beacon in the middle of the emptiness, his voice distorted as the wind ripped and played with the sound. His HP quivered at a dangerous 2.8, but he didn't care.

He had to protect his brother.

He was just a babybones.

No sign of anything - no footprints, no lights, no sounds. Even a reset would be better than this. He tripped in the snow, but clambered up and kept running.

"PAPYRUS!"

".wait."

It was just a click. He almost lost it, in the chaos of the storm, but he understood. He clashed his hands together, making a long, rattling clap.

"!help!"

A small light.

Gold.

The way he imagined sunlight.

 **[sans hopes that his brother may one day see sunlight.]**

* * *

Sans blinked, warmth soaking back into his numb fingers and toes. The bright, golden light had taken form - a fire elemental was kneeling over him, pressing its hand against his chest. Sans scrambled to his feet.

"!careful! .very. .cold."

".seen. ?brother?" he asked, flicking his hands and crackling his joints in an almost instinctive way.

"?papyrus?"

"!yes!" This could easily be a trap, and he knew it. But he didn't stop. "?where?"

".safe. .come."

Sans began to walk, but the elemental scooped him up as if he weighed nothing. Sans squirmed, a little uncomfortable.

"?name?"

".sans."

".how. .speak. ?wingdings?"

".father. .taught."

".Father. ?name?"

".gaster."

The elemental hummed to himself as he ran, his feet leaving wet pools in the snow.

".where. ?going?"

".restaurant."

Sans wondered if he had heard correctly. "?restaurant?"

".HP. .low. . _rest_."

"SANS? SANS, PLEASE WAKE UP!"

Grillby laid the older skeleton on the floor of the dark room, quickly checking his breathing again.

".he's. .fine.. .HP. .low."

"HIS HP IS ALWAYS LOW," whimpered Papyrus, clutching his brother's hand. Sans' head lolled to the side. Tears were streaming down Papyrus' face. "I'M SCARED."

".wait." The elemental stood up, running back out of the breakroom and closing the door behind him. Papyrus glanced around nervously. He had fallen asleep in Grillby's arms, and had woken up alone. The room was empty except for a few bottles of ketchup, a lopsided table and one odd barstool covered in scorch marks.

"Sans likes ketchup," whispered Papyrus, picking up on of the bottles, ripping the lid off, and pouring it onto Sans' face. He had no idea his eyes were glowing green.

Sans coughed, then licked his lips.

"pap-"

"SANS!"

Sans blinked, his HP stabilizing as he looked back at his baby brother. Papyrus fell on top of him, sobbing.

"I'M SO SORRY, I'M SO-"

"hey, it's ok. i'm here." He closed his eyes, pulling his brother into a long hug. "i'm so sorry, papyrus."

"I WAS SO SCARED-"

"it's all my fault, i should have-"

"- THAT SOMETHING MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED TO YOU."

Sans pulled away, looking at Papyrus' face. "bro-"

The door swung open, and Grillby stepped in, holding a glowing hot dog.

".here's- ?WHAT?"

Sans chuckled weakly, wiping some of the ketchup off of his face. ".fine.. .ketchup."

Grillby hissed in relief, waving his hand and cleaning the room.

".thank. .you..," crackled Sans. ".saved. .us.. .saved. . _him.."_

Grillby turned and looked at him, his face expressionless as always. ".rest.. .talk. .later."

Sans looked down at the little skeleton curled up in his lap. Papyrus was already half asleep.

".thanks." he repeated, leaning back against the wall.

"SANS, I NEVER WANT TO LOSE YOU AGAIN."

"no matter what happens, i'll always be there for you, paps," he whispered, stroking his brother's skull. "i promise."

* * *

"?sans?"

The skeleton blinked, looking up at the elemental in front of him. Papyrus was still asleep – his head against his chest, one hand wrapped tightly around his hoodie. Grillby held another glowing hot dog.

".eat.. .need. .HP."

Sans took the hot dog, looking down at it for a second.

".why. ?help?"

".speak. .Common.. .I. .understand."

"ok, then. why'd you help us? why'd you go out in that storm? bit dangerous for a stroll, isn't it?"

".why. ?not? .needed. .help."

"but…" Sans shrugged, looking down at his brother. "i don't know. i don't even know your name. if it weren't for you, we'd probably both be dead, now."

".I. .grillby.. .were. ?lost?"

"yeah, we were lost. we live in waterfall, and… i don't really remember what happened. we got off the path, i guess. then i turned around, and papyrus was gone, and i… i freaked out."

".very. .close."

"yeah, we are. a lot of stuff has happened recently, and… well…" He took a bite of the hot dog, closing his eyes as warmth spread to every part of his body.

".how's. ?Gaster?"

"why? do you know him?" A lot of people had heard of Gaster. He was the Royal Scientist, after all, and one of the king's most trusted advisers. ("Trusted", not "listened to", he always said.) Grillby hummed softly.

".used. .to."

* * *

"It's all my fault. I don't know what I'm doing, I don't know what to do."

Papyrus opened his eyes, his hand instinctively curling around Sans' jacket as he looked around. Where was he, again? It was cold. Not too cold. The floor was covered in black marks, almost as if someone had –

Grillby! Papyrus climbed out of his brother's lap and tried to look under the door. Two figures stood just outside – one whose feet were covered by dark robes, one whose feet were made of fire. Something hissed and crackled – words, he knew. Words he didn't quite catch.

"I know," said the voice that had woken him. Father! Papyrus began to reach for the doorknob, but paused. "I worry about them, but I don't know what to do. Sans, especially. He holds grudges. He is defiant. He is weak."

Sans?! Sans was the strongest monster he knew! Sans was way cooler than that!

".grief." said Grillby. ".will. .learn. .control." He hummed softly. ".patience."

Gaster sighed. Was he… crying? "I know. It's my fault, anyway. Abandoning them, after that. Burying myself in my work. They could have died, and I would be none the wiser. Thank you, my friend."

The dark shadow turned towards the door, and Papyrus scrambled back into Sans' arms. The door swung open, and Sans tensed in his sleep.

"FATHER?"

Gaster didn't say anything, staring down at them sadly. Why was he sad? They were alright! Grillby had saved them!

Sans stirred, instinctively taking Papyrus' hand as he woke up.

"SANS, LOOK! IT'S FATHER!"

No one said anything for several seconds. Grillby shuffled in the doorway. Papyrus finally broke the silence.

"CAN WE GO HOME NOW?"

Gaster nodded, his constant grin even smaller and more pained than usual.

"Yes. Let's go home."


	7. Cutting Deeper

"Tra la la. To where do you wander, traveler?"

Gaster didn't stop, watching the canoe drifting next to the path. A hooded figure stood on it, its face hidden in the shadows. It had been a few days since he had been to the Lab, but people didn't just show up in the Underground.

"Waterfall." No use in lying. He had no reason to be afraid of this... whatever it was. The monster drifted towards the bow of its canoe.

"Care for a lift?"

Gaster shrugged and stepped on the boat.

It sprouted legs and began running across the water.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Tra la la. I'm the Riverman. Or the Riverwoman? It doesn't matter, now. I've seen you pass this way many times."

The Riverperson began singing in a strange language - soft and guttural with trilling r's and deep a's. Gaster stared down at the dark water.

"I've never seen you before," he said as the song ended. The Riverperson said nothing for several seconds.

"Everyone sees me eventually. It takes longer, for some people."

"Are you Death?"

"Me? I'm only the ferryman.

" _Letum non discerni_

 _Inter sanctorum et peccatorum_

 _Accipit et Accipit_

 _Nondum habitas in._

 _Tra la la_."

Steam curled up in wisps off of the water, hissing and whispering in a language of its own. The path reappeared, and he recognized the place.

"I can get off here. What's the fee?"

"You'll pay it eventually, Doctor Gaster. Beware the one with a lifetime of resentment."

Gaster looked back at the Riverperson as he stepped off of the boat, but the figure had vanished.

* * *

"well, look who the annoying dog dragged in."

"FATHER!"

A little white dog tugged at the hem of Gaster's lab coat, grinning at him with beady, intelligent eyes. He tried to pull away, and it ran out of the frame.

"it's hauled in some pretty weird stuff before, but this is unprecedented."

"I'm taking the weekend off," said Gaster. Sans steadied himself against the doorframe.

"well, what do you know. next thing we know you'll be working an eight to five shift and come home on holidays."

"THE WHOLE WEEKEND? NYEH HEH HEH! THIS IS SO EXCITING!"

Papyrus ran into the kitchen. Sans stuck his hands in his pockets, staring up at his father.

"I KNOW! I'LL MAKE LASAGNA. SANS SAYS THAT I'M GOOD AT THAT. WHERE ARE THE NOODLES?"

"how's the core coming?" asked Sans coolly.

"Quite well. It's nearly done; there's just a few… final altercations."

"'final altercations.' you never even told us how it runs, who's maintaining it, how it's going to get power to hundreds of monsters…"

"The answer to all of those questions has one very simple answer which is nearly impossible to explain. Determination."

"NNAGH! GET THAT DOG!"

 **[the annoying dog absorbed the lasagna.]**

The white dog flew through the living room and phased through a wall.

Sans shot a halfhearted beam of blue light in its direction, and Papyrus stomped around the kitchen in fury.

"NOW WHAT SHALL I DO? OHO, I KNOW! I SHALL MAKE SP-SPAGETTY!"

Sans winced. "or, you know, we could go eat at grillby's or som-"

"NEVER FEAR, BROTHER. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM PREPARED! THERE'S SPAGHETTI IN THE FRIDGE ALREADY!"

Two plates of (ice cold) spaghetti flew out of the kitchen, and Papyrus vaulted after them. Gaster crunched on a bite.

The taste was indescribable.

"It's… excellent, Papyrus," he coughed. His son nodded eagerly.

"IT'S A LITTLE RARE."

Gaster managed another bite, then laid his plate down. "What would you like to do this weekend?"

"OH, I KNOW! WE COULD TRAIN! YOU COULD TEACH US ALL YOUR MAGIC TRICKS! SANS IS GOING TO BE A BOSS MONSTER SOMEDAY, I KNOW IT!"

"you're a boss yourself, bro," said Sans. "that special attack of yours could come in real handy if you're in a scrape sometime."

Gaster nodded. "That's a good idea. Anything else?"

"COULD YOU TELL US A STORY ABOUT MOTHER?"

Gaster hesitated. He had not really talked about Lucida since her death, and he didn't really want to start now. But of course, Papyrus hadn't known her. He deserved more than that.

"PLEASE?"

"She fought in the war. That's where we met. She was a powerful boss monster, and though she did not have a special attack, she was a skilled healer. It was not long before she was a lieutenant commander."

"DID SHE COMMAND YOU?"

"For a short period. Then... well, she and I did something rash. She was promoted to Captain, and, well, I was offered a promotion. But by then it was too late. We were forced underground. Once we realized we would not instantly die in here, we often worked together to make it a more hospitable place."

"'something rash'."

"WHAT'S THAT MEAN?"

"It's... it's a long story."

"we've got all weekend."


	8. Photon Readings

"Clear?"

"Clear."

"Let's go."

The two figures vanished, then reappeared on the other side of the campsite.

"Huh. That actually worked," whispered a female voice.

"Feel free to start believing me anytime, Lieutenant."

"So, what's it classified as? Space manipulation?"

"Um... teleportation?"

"Right right right. Tell you what- you stay back here, I'll go in. Draw them-"

"Sir, I don't think-"

Lucida closed her eyes. "Before you argue, Gaster, remind me again what we're doing?"

"Rescuing captives who are being tortured for information."

"Yes. And who's the healer?"

"You are," he muttered.

"And who can make the giant floaty dragon things?"

"Giant floaty- you mean blasters?"

"Oh. Yes, blasters. Heh. Gaster blasters." She chuckled. Gaster groaned.

"Fine. I'll draw them off. Call me if there is any trouble."

"Right. Hope you've mastered your blasters, Gaster, or this might be a disaster."

"And I'm done. Good luck, Lieutenant." He vanished. Lucida rolled her eyes and crept towards the camp.

On the other side of the clearing, a human guard jumped to attention. Nothing had moved. The empty field in front of the camp was exactly the same. He squinted. Yeah, nothing was there.

An odd feeling was churning his stomach, as if something wasn't quite right. Maybe he was starting to get sick. That was probably...

He took a step forward, clenching his sword with both hands. There was nothing there. There was nothing there. There was –

His screams ripped through the night.

The white blast vanished instantly, leaving him sprawled in the dirt with 2 HP. Somewhere nearby, another guard's soul shattered.

A horn blew down in the camp, and a figure materialized. It was almost impossible to see - a black smudge on the even blacker background, pinpoint violet eyes glimmering.

"Enemies of the king."

The voice was soft - a hiss, a whisper, but all the humans could hear it. Dark. Empty. A voice of cruelty and terror and pain.

"You have killed innocents. You have murdered and tortured without cause. Many have suffered."

"And you will pay."

Arrows began whizzing through the darkness, and the violet lights flickered, almost as if it was blinking.

Two vague, lighter shapes loomed up behind it.

* * *

Lucida flipped her visor down and ran into the fray, slipping into the crowd. Shouting, confused soldiers ran everywhere, and no one paid her any attention. In full armor, she was just another soldier.

An unnaturally thin soldier, maybe, but no one cared.

She ducked into a tent, glanced around at the bedrolls, tripped on a fallen helmet, then ducked back out.

She looked in another tent. Still nothing. Still no one. In the chaos, no one noticed her, but she wouldn't be invisible for long. Someone would notice that she had a bow and no quiver, that her armor made a hollow clanking noise, that she wasn't running out to go kill the monster.

Besides, Gaster couldn't distract them forever.

She grabbed a random soldier's arm. "Where are the prisoners, who's guarding them?"

"Um, Colonel Kepler took a couple men down-"

She was gone, running through the mob of soldiers. She could hear the screams coming from the other side of the camp, could see the flashes of the blasters in her corner of her eye.

Somewhere deep inside of her, she could sense Gaster's Level Of ViolencE rising.

She grabbed another soldier. "WHERE'S COLONEL KEPLER, HE'S NEEDED URGENTLY!"

"OVER THERE!" he shouted back, pointing towards a nondescript tent near the middle of the camp. "WHAT'S-"

And she was gone again, sprinting the opposite direction of the other soldiers. She pulled her bow off of her shoulder, and flew into the tent.

"Colonel Kepler?" she called, then stopped.

The tent was full. Several soldiers stood at attention, a couple scientists were huddled over papers, and...

She looked away. There were the cages, lining the perimeter of the tent. There were the prisoners they had been searching for. Many different kinds, all different ages, starving and terrified with next to no HP.

Her feet puffed in clouds of dust as she walked further in. A short, severe-looking man with more metals than soldiers stood up. Magic scars lined his face, she could sense a towering LV.

"What is the meaning of this?"

In the middle of the tent, a thin, dark figure was floating in a glass tank of water. Tendrils of magic leaked off of it, and several scientists wrote down figures and statistics.

A choking sob rose in her throat, but she swallowed it.

"We're being attacked. The camp is being overtaken."

"Nothing has gotten past the outer perimeters, soldier. Who are you?"

"You're wrong. I am vengeance."

She held up her bow, and magical arrows whizzed from it, cutting through his soul before he could react. His soul shattered, and his guards were down before they even realized what had happened.

Lucida removed her helmet and ran towards the prisoners. The scientists were gone, but she didn't care.

The monster in the water tank hadn't moved. A strand of green magic flickered off one of its fingers. She touched the glass, trying to sense its HP, then smashed her gauntlet against it.

Cracks spiderwebbed across the surface, and the water – boiling hot – gushed out across her feet. She swept it up before it could reach any of the other prisoners, and the dark figure collapsed to the floor.

For a second, it didn't move.

Then, its fingers sparked. Fire blossomed over its entire body, lighting up the inside of the tent.

"An elemental," she whispered, crouching next to it. It was warm – not burning, like you would think. She pressed an orb of healing magic into its chest, and it shuddered.

Something moved by the door.

An arrow appeared on her bow, and she drew it back and stood up in one smooth motion. Apparently, one of the scientists had been hiding behind a desk. He squeaked.

"Wha-" she began, her throat tight. "Why? Why would you do this?"

"Elementals are very powerful!" He had a high, wheezing voice. "We were just testing, measuring its magic! It could stand it! This is war!"

She pinned his hand to the ground with an arrow, and he shrieked. Another arrow appeared on her bow, and she aimed at his head.

"That's. No. Excuse."

".stop."

She turned and looked. The elemental had sat up and was watching them.

".unnecessary."

"Unnecessary? Look at what they've done! What they did to _you_!"

The scientist fled, and she dropped her bow.

".fine."

The elemental tilted its head to one side. ".understand. ?me?"

".yes." she snapped, kneeling next to one of the cages. A red bird-type huddled in the corner, terrified by the action. She fiddled with the lock for a second, and the elemental crawled next to her.

".let. .me." it clicked, reaching out and touching the lock. It melted – the molten iron hissing on the damp floor. Lucida pulled the bird out, and the elemental moved to the next lock.

".who. ?you?" it asked, glancing back at the tent door.

"Lieutenant Lucida Bright. I have a soldier on the edge of camp who's distracting them while I rescue you guys."

". _one_. ?soldier?" It tried to stand up, but stumbled. Lucida healed it as best she could, then focused on the other three monsters. One monster – a little creature who looked like a cactus – was refusing to get out of their cage.

"We'll get in trouble, get in trouble!" they whimpered. "That one tried, it did, and got put in the water!"

"We can do it!" said one of the other prisoners – a bright yellow dragon with two legs. "Come on, we can be brave!" The cactus-type shook its head.

"I'll protect you," whispered Lucida. "Come on! We need to go, or they'll put us all in water, or worse!"

"Lieutenant?" said a familiar voice.

She spun around, and Gaster stepped back. He was pale, even more than usual. His eyes were completely dark.

"Lieutenant?" he repeated. He flickered in a burst of static, then reappeared.

"Gast, what're you doing?"

"I'm not actually here," he said. "It's just some timeline manipulation. If I did this right, things are getting sticky out there, and you might want to-" He vanished again.

"Gaster?" She picked up two of the monsters. "We've got to go. I will lead you to the edge of the camp, if I can. Might be trouble."

"We're trying to escape, escape into a crowd of humans," whimpered the Cactus.

"We can do it." whispered the little dragon uncertainly.

The elemental picked up the bird, its light dimming. ".hurry." it gasped.

"No way," she said, taking the bird from it. "You can barely walk yourself. Come on. Can you gain some more EXP, are you strong enough?"

".pacifist."

"Wait, really?"

".fight. .if. .necessary."

"Watch them. I'll fight, but stay behind me." She opened her cell phone. "Gast? Ready for more space manipulation?" Flipping her bow back into position, she dropped her helmet visor and stepped out of the tent.

Most of the crowd had dispersed.

The rest were standing around the tent, their weapons drawn. Lucida caught a glimpse of the scientist, cringing behind a row of soldiers. There were too many of them – at least twenty, and the prisoners' couldn't afford to take any hits. An arrow appeared on her bow, and she stepped in front of them.

"Well, we tried," she muttered.

"Fire!" shouted someone.

A barrage of arrows whistled towards the monsters – but suddenly vanished in puffs of smoke. Lucida didn't ask questions - her eyes blazing, her arrows ripping through soldier after soldier after soldier. None of their weapons got near them, arrows, spears, even swords, all seemed to burst into flame the second they left their owners' hands.

Then, they were all gone. Souls glimmered in front of them, like puddles of multicolored, broken stars.

Gaster materialized beside her, his blasters out.

"I'm here! What- oh."

"You ok?"

"Barely a scratch. Sit rep?"

Lucida adjusted the cactus-type still sitting on her shoulder. "Survivors extracted, no hostiles in the area. Not sure- whoa!"

The elemental collapsed, his flame flickering weakly.

He was very small.

".Still." she instructed, kneeling next to him, administering the healing magic as slowly as she dared.

".Fine." it hissed back. Carefully avoiding any contact with the souls, Gaster walked in a circle, peering down the pathway for any survivors.

"I thought you were a pacifist?"

".didn't. .kill. .anyone."

She smiled, helping it back to its feet. Gaster's blasters vanished.

"They all appear to be neutralized. We need to get out of here."

"You're on, Gast."

They all vanished, landing in the woods near the base of Mt. Ebott.

"That's all I can risk for now; you probably need to heal them again."

Orbs of magic swirled around Lucida's hands, but before she could do anything, the elemental's hands burned green. It silently began healing the others. Lucida hesitated, then sat back.

"?Name?"

".Grillby."

"Grillby, huh? Were you in the army?"

He nodded, flickering.

"He was stationed in our village," said the bipedal dragon-type. "I'm Pecca, by the way. He and one other soldier. The other, Madis, was a warrior, but Grillby was a healer. They said that if we were attacked, Madis would hold them off and Grillby would protect us and evacuate us to the safe houses in Mt. Ebott."

"What happened?" asked Gaster, almost too softly to hear.

Grillby hissed. ".Attacked."

Pecca whimpered. "There were nearly a hundred soldiers. Most of the monsters got to the caves, but… not all. They seemed more interested in capturing than killing, so I and maybe a dozen stragglers were brought in. At first they wanted information, but after they figured out we didn't have any, they… well, they brought in a few scientists, who…" Their head drooped.

"Grillby tried to keep us alive, as best as he could. Most gave up the will to live, lost all their HoPe no matter how much he healed them. We tried escaping – once. Made it a full two steps out of the cages before we were blasted down. After that, he got put in the water, and… we didn't try anything else."

".couldn't. .protect. .them." muttered Grillby.

Lucida stared at him for a second, then marched over and scooped him up in a hug.

"You were incredibly brave," she said, letting go and hugging the other three. "All of you. You did not fail. Your villagers will be safe in the caves at Ebott. We've sent evacuees there ourselves. Ready to keep going?"

"Let's."

* * *

"so lemme get this straight – the two of you snuck out, raided a human camp to rescue some prisoners, and didn't tell anyone?"

"Without clearance from our superiors. Yes, we did."

"THAT WAS A NICE STORY, FATHER!"

"yeah, it was. huh."

Papyrus' eyes flickered shut, but he jumped back up. "I'M NOT TIRED! ARE THERE ANY MORE STORIES?"

"Many, but none for tonight. Rest. You want to train tomorrow, don't you?"

"YES! GOODNIGHT! NYEH HEH HEH!"

Papyrus ran back towards his bedroom. Sans leaned back, staring up at the ceiling.

"that was a good story."

"It was," said Gaster softly. "I wish it ended there."

Sans didn't say anything, watching as the shadows stretched across the walls.

"someone reset, didn't they?"

He could barely see Gaster's nod in the darkness.

* * *

 **A/N: Part 2 will be up next week.**


	9. Negative

Gaster flickered back into the timeline, rewriting the code so the others stood next to him, sealing gaps and deleting paradoxes as quickly as he could on the fly. Add a few zeroes there, delete an error there. Simple math, really.

Grillby flickered to life, and Lucida jumped out of a wormhole, the other prisoners still hanging off of her. The monsters' camp was at the top of the hill, and they could see the white light of fire magic glimmering through the trees. Pecca bounced in a little circle.

"Look at that, guys! We made it! We're gonna be ok!"

Gaster chuckled, glancing around. They couldn't have been followed. The prisoners were safe. Lucida was safe. They had taken out a squadron of at least thirty, maybe forty humans. Everything was going to be-

Pain shot through his head, and everything became dark.

"Clear?"

"What?"

"That was a question, Gast. Are we clear?"

Gaster began to stand up, but Lucida yanked him back into the dirt.

"Where are we?"

Lucida stared at him, her pupils glowing in the darkness. "We're on the edge of a human camp," she said slowly. "We're about to go in and rescue captives. This crazy – frankly insubordinate – plan was your idea. Are you ok?"

"Reset," he muttered. He felt sick to his stomach. "I-I'm fine."

How had there been a reset? Only the most determined creature in the world had the ability – the ability to save and reset, the ability to alter the coding of the universe.

"Reset? What?" he began to turn away, but she grabbed his shoulder. "Hey. Listen. We can turn back, if we need to. Try again tomorrow, or put in an official request. But I need to know if I can count on you for this. .Are. .you. ?okay?"

He nodded. "There's… there's someone really powerful here. I felt – feel - them. They're going to make this really, really dangerous. But… yes. I'm okay."

"Okay. I just needed to make sure. Do you still want to go through with this?"

He nodded. "We need to save Gril- the prisoners. But contact me as soon as you've got them secure."

"Gaster, do you know what's about to happen?"

He hesitated.

"I don't remember when, but you said you can manipulate time. Are you seeing something? Have… have you seen this before?"

"Now's not the time to get into this discussion. We're clear."

He reappeared on the other side of the camp, going through the same motions. The guard jumped to attention. Gaster blasted him. Another guard heard the screams. He killed him too. A horn blew in the camp. Everything was the same.

He closed his eyes for a second, then split in half. His double summoned its blasters and destroyed another guard running up.

Gaster vanished, getting closer to the camp, trying to keep the two parts of his psyche separate. His double took a hit, and he felt 10 HP drain away.

No one seemed to notice him as he flickered from shadow to shadow, staying close to the tents, never making a noise. A sick, cold dread was still curling through him.

"There you are. I figured you'd try something funny this run-through."

Gaster spun around, shooting a missile at the soldier. She sidestepped it easily, grinning.

"You can feel it, can't you? You're so scared this time, so distracted. You're one of the First Species. You know about the resets."

".determination." he hissed in Wingdings. She laughed.

"Please. I know you can understand me."

She had no sword, no bow, no spear. Just a knife she tossed from hand to hand. Her armor was standard issue – cheaply made, probably scavenged. Her cheeks were ruddy, her hair was dark and cut short. The only extraordinary thing about her was her eyes.

They were red. Not bright red – but a rich, deep color. The color of blood that seeps out of a wound. She grinned.

"You're here for the prisoners. No, don't worry, I know. I was out trying to stop your partner last time. You want to know why I haven't warned any of my superiors, why I'm not out there ready to cut her spinal cord before she can do anything?"

"Let me guess, you want to kill me yourself."

"Oh, don't be boring." She flicked her wrist, and the little yellow dragon-type, Pecca, stumbled forward. There was a leash around its neck – a thin rope was attached to the human's hand. The human chuckled, holding her knife above the dragon's skull.

"I want you. I may not be a scientist, but I know there's something about you. I want to know what it is. Come with me, and I'll let your partner go. In fact, I'll let all the others go. If not, I'll kill them all, or reset until they're all dead. Your choice."

Pecca whimpered as the knife slipped between two of their scales, cutting the delicate skin underneath. A trickle of blood slipped down its forehead and between their eyes.

Gaster couldn't think – the code swirling around him as he stared at the human in front of him. A string of endless 9's seemed to emit from her – corrupting the code. Red. Red as blood.

"Well, skeleton?"

"What is it about you? What makes you special?"

"Me? I'm just a common foot soldier. I was drafted for the war, and never moved up in ranks. I'm a nobody. Just a Character. But I am filled with determination. So, what's your answer?"

Pecca whimpered in pain, and Gaster raised his hands. On the other side of camp, his double vanished, as he focused all his energy. She smiled.

"Very, very good." She didn't let go of Pecca.

Gaster could sense the code – feel it swirling around him. He could almost see the human's corruption, almost reach out and touch it.

Even if he escaped, she could reset.

She needed to vanish. Not just die.

She needed to be deleted.

His cell phone began to ring.

Her eyes flickered down, just for a second.

Purple magic flashed from his eyes, freezing the human and her prisoner. He didn't hesitate. He couldn't hesitate.

He erased her code.

And that's when things went wrong.

Pecca screamed – a loud, high shriek, as if their soul was being ripped in half. The soldier began laughing. Gaster realized his mistake a millisecond too late.

Then they both turned gray.

Gaster reached out, tried to alter the code, tried to pull back the dragon. But they both vanished.

"no no nO NO!" he yelled. For a second, he saw the human's eyes, glowing at him in the half-darkness. Red. Filled with blood.

 _But no one came,_ said her cold, sneering voice inside his head.

Then they were gone. Deleted. They had never existed.

Reality began to rip at the seams, swirling and fluttering around him. It was as if he was watching a movie playing backwards.

Pecca, gripped by the human, watching as Gaster flickered and sparked in from of them. Pecca watching from their cage as two scientists experimented on Grillby. Pecca being knocked out by a soldier and stuffed in a sack. Pecca in the middle of a crowd of stampeding evacuees. Pecca waking up as a horn blew somewhere outside their village. Pecca playing with two smaller dragon-types – members of their family. Pecca watching from the doorway as two monster soldiers delivered a message from the king to their mayor. Pecca as a little child, following their mother around a market. Pecca as a baby.

Then, they were gone.

Gaster collapsed, feeling the LV arch up through his soul. He couldn't think, couldn't breathe. They were innocent. They were a hostage. And he had killed them.

"No," he muttered. "No, no, _no,_ it was an accident, it was an-"

The human standing over Pecca, her knife pressed against their scales. The human, dead, realizing she could try again and change the past. The human, facing Lucida, screaming in frustration as all her missiles were absorbed by Grillby's fire. The human, jerking to attention at the sudden blast of a horn on the other side of the camp. The human attacking the monster camp, exhilaration pulsing through her as she ripped monster after monster into mounds of dust. The human being drafted for the war. The human being scorned and mocked because of her blood-red eyes. The human summoning her soul for the first time and being enthralled by the odd, rich color. The human as a child, watching a monster merchant from a nearby city, distrust working its way through her.

But no one came.

The world was spinning – all the sounds gone, all the code unreachable. Gaster trembled, staring down at his hands. His breath was coming in gasps, his heart pounding in his ears. They had been innocent. It was an accident-

Then, it stopped. He was alone.

His phone was ringing.

He stared at it for a moment, uncomprehending. There was something deeply, deeply wrong.

"H-hello?"

"I secured the prisoners. There's three, all in stable, well, stable-ish condition. No sign of any other soldiers. How're things?"

He swallowed. "Everything's- everything's fine. Get them out as quick as possible."

"Is – Gaster, are you crying? What happened, what's wrong?"

"Everything's fine. Get the prisoners out of here; I'll guard the border. Everything is going to be fine this – this go-round."

"Gaster, now is not the time, but…" She paused, and a human screamed somewhere in the background, "if you ever need to talk, I'm here. I felt something. And I know you did too. What changed?"

Gaster closed his eyes. Somehow, nothing was too different. He had permanently deleted two living, sentient creatures, but the ripples weren't quite as wide as he expected. Something was definitely altered though. There was less friction in the universe.

He reached out, felt the FUN VALUE. It was lower. It was 66.

* * *

 **A/N: A bit meta, this one. Any questions, lemme know. Thank you guys so much.**


	10. This Next Experiment

"Alright Papyrus, you first. Preferably not your strongest attack."

Gaster's soul floated in front of him – monsters rarely used their souls in attacks, but all humans did.

Papyrus stretched out his hand, and a deep blue color flickered over Gaster's soul.

"YOU'RE BLUE NOW."

"THAT'S MY ATTACK."

Gaster smiled. "We'll work on that. Now-"

A bone shot from Papyrus' hand, straight for Gaster's soul. He began to step out of its way, but… couldn't.

He couldn't move at all.

The bone blasted through his chest, knocking 4 off of his HP. He grinned.

"Not bad." He flickered, but didn't move. "Not bad at all."

"NOW IT'S YOUR ATTACK."

Gaster summoned a blaster, watching his son's face. Papyrus grinned, steadying himself.

"Ready?"

A beam of energy shot towards him, ripping through him, lighting up his ribcage like a beacon. Papyrus shuddered, his HP dropping.

"You're supposed to dodge! Run away!"

Papyrus shook his head. "I HIT YOU, NOW YOU HIT ME. IT'S ONLY FAIR!"

"Fights are not about 'fairness', my son. They're about who walks away alive."

Papyrus shrugged. "IT'S MY TURN, NOW. CAN YOU SHOW ME HOW TO DO THAT?"

"Do… what?"

"YOUR SPECIAL ATTACK! THE BLASTERS!"

"Well, as a skeleton, they should come naturally to you. Focus on something you need to protect, something you love."

Papyrus closed his eyes, pressing his hands over his skull. Gaster folded his arms, silently testing the blue magic. It was incredibly strong. Deep blue. A PATIENCE attack. Not incredibly different from his own purple magic – the PERSEVERANCE attack.

"Anything?"

"NOT YET! JUST… A LITTLE… MORE."

Nothing happened.

"Papyrus, perhaps-"

"NO! I CAN DO THIS!"

"Think about Sans. Imagine for a moment that something's gone wrong, and you need to protect him."

He would've taken a step back if the magic let him. As it was, he could barely see Papyrus in the massive shadow.

"One," he breathed. He had never seen just _one_ blaster before. Much less a blaster at least twice, maybe three times the size of its summoner. The thing could probably take out a human in a single shot. Papyrus opened his eyes, but they were glowing. An odd color. Light blue. Not quite the color of integrity magic. Something different. Something special.

Then, all the stars vanished.

Papyrus' blaster disappeared, and Gaster's hand lit up with purple fire.

"Let's get inside," he muttered. "Sans?"

"power's out," called Sans from the couch. "all of waterfall."

Gaster flickered. "The entire Underground. There's nothing we can do but wait it out, see if the magic stabilizes itself."

"I THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING TO FIX IT," said Papyrus. Three strategically placed candles lit up.

"I'm working on it. There's still…" He put his hand over the pocket of his lab coat. "Several key components which have not completely been set in place. As I said, the CORE is nearly finished, but not…"

His eyes lit up, and Sans clutched his stomach.

"ARE YOU OK?"

"y-yeah. fine."

"BROTHER, FOCUS! IT'S GOING TO BE-"

A scream tore through the darkness.

The candles went out.

And everything was silent.

The darkness kept growing, the shadows cutting deeper. There was nothing they could do but sit. Wait.

It was so, so cold.

Papyrus pulled Sans closer, shaking. His brother squeezed his hand. There was nothing else he could do.

Dark.

Darker.

Yet darker.

The stars came back first. Well, they weren't really stars. Invisible, well-placed lasers lit up an array of shiny rocks stuck to the ceiling, which glowed and sparkled with the shaky, unstable light source. Then, the weird old lamp in the corner of the room. Then, the streetlights.

Then, the wailing started.

The skeletons ran outside, afraid of what happened, even more afraid of not knowing. Within seconds, it was obvious.

The body of a mermaid-type monster was floating in the marsh. Its eyes were closed, its scales were glowing a dull gray. Another monster – a similar kind, but smaller - was leaning over the bridge's rail, trying to reach the body.

"I- I don't know what happened! She was right next to me, waiting for the power to come back on, then she fell down! I heard a scream, her scream, and now- and now- Lemon, can you hear me?"

Sans' eyes lit up, and the monster floated back towards the bridge. Gaster nodded in approval, then laid the body down and put a hand over its soul.

"Very, very interesting. When did it happen?"

"Only a few seconds ago! What's wrong with her?"

"I don't know. The soul is still present in the body, but…" He felt its pulse, then opened one of her eyes. "None of her vitals are responsive. No heartbeat, no respiration, nothing. She's dead."

"No, no! She can't be! Lemon Bread! Lemon, it's Shyren, can you hear me?" The little fish quivered. "Tra- Tra-la-la!"

The tune was shaky, off-key. The soul under Gaster's hand trembled.

"Keep singing," he urged.

"Tra… Tra-la… I can't!" Tears were pouring across the bridge, stinging Gaster's hands. She turned away, shaking.

"Can you do anything?" she whispered.

"No. Not right here."

Gaster stood up and walked away, his coat swirling behind him, his hands clenched. Papyrus stumbled after him.

"WHERE ARE YOU GOING?"

"This has gone on far enough. I'm going on a date."

* * *

"Doctor Wingdings! You came!"

"As requested, Your Highness." Gaster knelt, studying the golden flowers covering the floor.

"Do you really need to bother with formalities like that?"

"I will perform my duties as necessary."

Asgore snorted, and pulled him into a hug.

"I'm so glad you're finally here. Do you want tea? I'll get tea!"

He ran out of the room, and Gaster turned over one of the flowers. It was odd. Smaller than the Echoflowers. More fragile. The seeds stuck to his robes. Asgore ran back in, pushing a trolley, and he stood back up.

"What do you want? I have golden flowers and… golden flowers."

"Whatever you're having," said Gaster, his permanent grin a little more genuine.

"Sugar?"

"No thank you."

"No sugar? It'll be bitter!"

"Just like me."

Asgore chuckled, handing him a cup.

"Very well. Where are your boys? I hoped to see them!"

"School. Since I'm here, I wanted to ask you-"

"So they don't actually stay with you in your lab all the time? How are they doing?"

"What? Of course not! That was a one-time thing. Sans does well when he applies himself. Papyrus is… enthusiastic, and he needs to be. But sir, I-"

"The little one? He reminds me of Lucida. Bright, passionate. Sans seems more quiet and snarky. Like you!"

"Asgore!"

"Hm?"

"There's something we need to discuss."

Gaster pushed back his cup of tea and stood up. Asgore sighed.

"This isn't about the CORE, is it?"

"What? No. Not directly, at least. This is… a personal project. I need a favor."

"Anything, my friend."

"A royal order. I need the bodies of monsters."

Asgore's teacup cracked in his paw. "Why, Doctor, you of all people know that when monsters die, they don't…" He forced a laugh.

"That's not what I'm talking about." The electricity sparked, like it was about to go out. Gaster's voice echoed with static. "You know of the ones who have fallen down."

"Wingdings, I don't think-"

"The power goes out quite often. Most times, it's fine. Other times, monsters will disappear. Sometimes dust is found. Sometimes it isn't. Sometimes they will reappear, comatose, days later."

"I- I know. I've sent far too many condolences, far too many reassurances. What is it? What's hurting my people?"

"I do not know. Tropet, one of the doctors in the Lab, has been studying the cases. Looking for anomalies."

"Does she know… I mean, could it be…"

"It's not a human, if that's what you're afraid of. Humans would not leave bodies, wouldn't leave unfinished business. Besides, a monster fell down this morning, nearly on my doorstep. We heard nothing, we saw nothing, and neither did her sister. This is something which we have not yet dealt with."

"What can we do?"

"You mentioned the CORE. That is Priority One – if all goes well it should be finished within the week. If the blackouts stop, hopefully the disappearances will too."

"What about those who have already fallen down? Can you do anything for them?"

Gaster knelt by the flowers in the middle of the garden, rubbing the petals of one. His fingers came away covered with a thin white powder.

"They're as good as dead. You can promise the families the dust for funerals when I'm done with them."

* * *

 **A/N: Finally, a plot emerges! *you mutter "about time."* I still don't own Undertale, but if you have any questions/ criticisms/ whatever else, leave it in the comment section and I'll get back to you on that.**

 **Thanks for the support!**


	11. Seems Very,

The CORE was beautiful.

A stunning array of dark blues with red accents, the dramatic, cool darkness in contrast with most of Hotland's oppressive brightness. The steam hissing, the sting of ozone in the air, the slow, constant hum of gears turning.

Well, not that last part. Not yet, at least.

Gaster lifted the hatch behind a set of puzzles and knelt, looking down into the darkness. The heart of his machine was down there, somewhere. Probably. That's the thing about building with magic. You never know exactly how big something is, or how exactly it works. Magic is more instinct than thought. Not even he knew everything about the CORE.

".ridiculous." He jumped down the hatch.

A sickening crunch echoed through the darkness, and his HP dropped by 30.

"Ugh." An orb of purple fire flickered to life by his hand, and he glared down at his broken ankles. Without nerves, he felt very little pain. But it was still annoying.

There was a bag of poptato chisps from the Lab in the dimension box Alphys made him, but he didn't bother. Still holding the fire magic, he started down the empty tunnel. Unlike the top of the CORE, it was silent. Plain. The walls curved over him like they might collapse at any second, even though he knew they wouldn't. Magic. His magic had never failed.

He pushed away the thought. He had gotten this far. So many people were relying on him. He couldn't turn back.

He didn't have a choice.

Then, the hallway ended - blank wall, hot metal. He pressed his hand against it and a small compartment popped open.

".here. .we. .go." he muttered, summoning a syringe.

A small, white dog appeared in front of him. Smiling. Gaster clenched the needle.

"What do you want?"

"Hey, Doc. I don't want anything, I'm just here to cheer you on!"

It flopped down on the floor, watching him with its cold, beady eyes.

"You are aware that there is a distinct possibility that everything could go horribly wrong?"

"That's always true."

"The CORE could collapse. Although there have been several successful smaller prototypes, theories can always be broken."

"You're right. But that's not in this timeline, y'know."

Gaster stared ahead at the compartment. "No. It's not. I'd ask you how you know that, but I doubt I'd get a straight answer."

"Wow. You really are as smart as they say. Don't let me bother you, keep working." It started snoring.

".here. .we. .go." He emptied the syringe into the machine and cast a shield around himself.

After a second of hesitation, he cast one over the annoying dog too.

The machine roared to life, shaking New Home in a tremor which must have been felt through the entire Underground. The walls began glowing with an eerie light, the color of blood.

Gaster held his breath.

The light faded. Somewhere above him, the gears began clanking in a low, regular hum. He grinned, turning to the dog.

".it. !worked!"

The dog snorted in its sleep and rolled over.

"It's a momentous occasion. This machine could save and improve hundreds of monster lives for years to come. And…" He summoned a scanner from his dimensional box. "It's stable!"

"'m celebrating," said the dog, its eyes still closed. "I'm just not gonna get up."

Gaster adjusted one of the knobs on his sensor, then put it away and opened the determination compartment again. All the liquid had evaporated, but he could still sense it, in the air, in his bones.

"That really worked," he muttered.

He felt… something.

He turned and began walking the way he had come. The annoying dog floated after him, still on its side.

"Whatcha doin' now?"

"I need to connect it to the power grid. Get at least part of the Underground running and make sure the energy as clean and stable as it looks like it should be. Then I'm going to visit the king."

"Why? To gloat?"

"Well, yes," he admitted. "But there's something I need to get."

"I'd ask you what, but I doubt I'd get a straight answer."

Gaster smiled, despite himself. "Wow. You really are smarter than you look."

"Hilarious. So, now what? You gonna retire, now that you're finished?"

"The work of a scientist is never done. I will merely move on to the next project." He glanced down at the dog.

"And it's not like this project is done. There are still many parts to finish, many things which will have to be maintained. I'm the only one who knows how it works, so I will still be heavily involved in its growth."

"And what about your kids?"

Gaster stopped. "What about them?"

"Are you involved in their growth? Have you ever stopped and used your big genius brain to think about what all of this is doin' to them? What they'll become if their dad abandons them to go off on some crazy save the world scheme?"

"I-"

"I've been keepin' an eye on them, no need to thank me. You're digging yourself into a pretty deep hole, just by doing nothin'."

"What- what do you think I should do?"

The dog rolled over on its back. "Something. Anything. There has to be stuff rattling around your soul other than weird equations no one else understands."

Gaster sighed. "You're right. I-I'll figure something out."

"Atta boy. Gotta go – Paps just put on a pot of fettuccini and I can't miss out on that."

"Wait!"

"Hm?"

"Who- are you?"

"You know who I am. You just don't want to admit it." It winked, and vanished.

"so... why am I here?"

"To help and observe."

"are you saying that alphys can't do that?"

Gaster didn't answer, flickering around the room and opening cabinets.

"Alphys? Where is the vessel?"

"In... in your hands, sir?"

Gaster looked down at the little flowerpot.

"Oh. Yes."

He reappeared at the table and flicked a light switch. Sans rubbed a flower petal between two fingers.

"never seen this type of flower before."

"It only grows in the king's garden. It was brought down from the human world." She turned back to her clipboard, scribbling notes.

Sans squinted. "is it... dusty?"

"The seeds are really small," said Alphys, not looking up.

"Ready to help and observe?" Gaster pulled a syringe out of his lab coat and dabbed a drop of red ooze on a piece of litmus paper.

The paper turned black and disintegrated.

"so does that mean it's an acid, or..."

"That means it is neither an acid, nor a base, nor magic, nor any other substance easily categorized."

Sans took a step back. "i may or may not have been paying attention during the debriefing, but... what's that stuff?"

"Determination, in its purest form. The will to live." He held up his free hand - letting the fluorescent light shine through the melted hole in his palm.

"When used as a weapon, it does this to monsters. However, today we're going to see what it does to insentient object."

"W- what happens when an inanimate object gains the will to- to live?" asked Alphys.

"no offense but that sounds like a terrible idea."

Gaster picked up his clipboard. "Why do you think so?" He didn't sound frustrated, or angry, or even annoyed. Almost... pleased. Sans shrugged.

"i mean, it doesn't have a soul. so... what'll it do? will it be sentient?"

"That's what we're about to find out."

He turned the flower over, and injected the liquid determination into peduncle underneath the petals. Sans adjusted his safety goggles, then leaned forward.

Nothing happened.

It didn't wilt, melt, or turn into some horrific genocidal plant-machine mutant.

It was just an ordinary golden flower. Gaster sighed, and scraped a sample from underneath a leaf.

"Well, that was anticlimactic. Alphys, keep in under observation in Standard Lab 7, with a… thirty minute examination rotation. If I single cell mutates, I want to know."

"Airtight container?"

"Yes."

"Fluorescent, right?"

"Of course. You ought to have more confidence, Doctor. You know what you're doing."

"H-haha." She picked up the flower and ran out of the room.

"This messes up my entire theory," grumbled Gaster. "Has anyone seen my microscope?"

Sans glanced up at his clipboard, then shrugged. "nah. hey, what was that?"

"What do you mean?" Gaster flickered, then reappeared with the microscope in his hands.

"well… what was the point of that? didya really expect it to turn into some sentient creature with a bunch of meta abilities?"

"Not necessarily. However, it would be foolish to completely disregard the possibility."

"right…" Sans shrugged, grabbing his clipboard out of the air and scribbling a note.

"However, there was an important reason why I did this. Especially why I did it with a flower."

"and…"

"I don't want to do anything I may regret. At least with a flower I don't have to worry about the guilt of taking or harming a soul."

Sans raised his eyebrows. "that was vague and ominous."

Gaster grinned vaguely and ominously. "I try."

Something crashed out in the hall, and Alphys stumbled in. "DOCTOR? DID YOU CALL FOR… FOR…"

"Howdy, Doctor. I… well, we delivered."

Sans leaned back into the shadows, out of sight of the doorway. Gaster bowed stiffly.

"Thank you, Your Highness."

"You can fix, her, right, Doctor? It'll be snow problem, right? Ha, ha…" Someone was sobbing in the hallway. Alphys wheeled a stretcher in.

Sans stepped towards her, leaning over. A bird was curled on the stretcher, its breath steaming.

"snowdrake… no, no, his mom. i've seen 'em in snowdin before."

Alphys flipped through the papers.

"It – it says she fell down eleven days ago. There was a localized blackout in Snowdin. She was asleep, and… and never woke up."

"huh. her vitals?"

"Gone. Medically speaking, she's dead. But physically…" Alphys summoned her soul, scribbling something on her board. "In spirit… her soul's in her body. So… it's a coma? No, that's not right. I-I don't know if she can hear us or not. Mrs. Drake?"

A smaller bird hopped up next to her. "Mom? You can save 'er, can't you? Right? That's what you wanted her for, right? You're going to make her all better?"

Alphys hesitated. "Y-yes. We are."

"Cool!" Snowdrake pecked his mother gently. "Bye, mom. It may be a while before icy you again, but… it'll be ok."

It hopped back out, nearly running into Gaster as he wheeled another stretcher in. Several smaller monsters were curled on it – a few Vegetoids, a talent agent, an oddly familiar little dog.

"Shyren is refusing to leave Waterfall, so I'm going to have to go pick up Lemon Bread myself. Alphys, you're in charge."

"aww, why's she always-"

"Oh –okay. What do you want ready for when you get back?"

"You misunderstand me. Not for the next… fifteen minutes or whenever I'm not around. I want you to be in control of the DETERMINATION experiments."

Alphys froze. "M-m- _me_?"

"Of course. You're more than capable, Doctor."

"W-what am I supposed to do? I don't even know-"

"What is the primary role of a scientist?"

"B- but-" She swallowed. "To observe and record data."

"Exactly. The subjects are basically dead anyway. What's the worst that could happen?"

* * *

 **A/N- Listen, guys... I'm not saying that the annoying dog is a self-insert, but...**

 **Well, I wouldn't know, because I'm not Toby Fox, and I don't own Undertale.**


	12. Very Interesting

"Tra la la. Somewhere it's Wednesday. So be careful."

"FUN VALUE 37. They're thirty-seven hours behind all the others and I don't know why."

"Tra la la. Tri li li. Tre le le. Why don't you sing with me? Tra la la."

"Don't be silly. This isn't Dancetale."

It was hard to tell if the Riverperson already knew about everything he mentioned, or if they didn't care. They never reacted strongly, when they even reacted at all. It was nice, really, not worrying about slipping up. To talk to someone who never panicked or acted like he was crazy.

"I love riding in my boat. Where do you want to ride with me?"

"Home. Waterfall, I mean."

Wind whistled through his skull as he watched the land whiz by, so fast it was just a faded blur. It was so much calmer than teleporting, than rewriting the code so he was somewhere else. The reds and golds of Hotland soaring by almost looked like brushstrokes.

"Do you hate them?"

"Whom?"

The Riverperson didn't answer, tilting its head, looking from side to side. Gaster sat down, his feet dangling just above the water.

"Hate is a strong word, but, I mean, look what they did to us." He motioned around the cave. "Look what they're still doing to us. There was no reason to start the war. They knew we were all above stealing their souls, that all the rumors were lies started by war-mongerers. And yet, they killed hundreds of innocents. They murdered, they tortured, they burned, they stole. They locked us down here, where hundreds more have starved or burnt or frozen or suffocated. Our species is a fraction of what it used to be!" His eyes lit up purple. "Even now, years and years later, the monsters struggle, with only the hope of a bloodthirsty madman to keep them sane. Even now, they keeping taking from us. My wife was killed even as she tried to spare one. Asgore… well, he used to be so honorable."

"Yet you want us to go back to their world. Above ground."

"I never said that," he muttered. "I want my people to be safe." The light faded from his eyes. They were almost to Waterfall, but he didn't stand up. "You're right, you know. I am wrong to hate. Hatred is why we are here in the first place."

The Riverperson guided their boat up into the docking bay. "What would happen, Dr. Gaster? What if you met one who did not carry their ambitions on their sleeve?"

A flash. Something from a timeline. Pink and blue. Nothing more.

"The right thing. I hope."

* * *

"SO, WHAT WAS IT?"

"Hm?" Gaster looked up from the tomatoes he was cutting.

"WHAT MADE LEMON FALL DOWN? AND SNOWDRAKE'S MOTHER, AND EVERYONE ELSE? WAS IT A HUMAN?"

Gaster sighed, laying the knife down. "I don't know. It wasn't a human, no, but it was some kind of sentient, living force. There were too many monsters of too many different species for it to be an effect of the darkness. Something else was there, but it has not struck and since the creation of the CORE."

Papyrus grinned, dumping a box of noodles into the boiling water. "YOU DID A GOOD JOB!" He hesitated. "I WAS WONDERING ABOUT WHAT YOU SAID EARLIER. ABOUT HOW POWERFUL AND CRUEL THE HUMANS WERE. ARE ALL OF THEM BAD? SURELY SOME OF THEM ARE KIND. ARE NICE. MAYBE… MAYBE THEY JUST NEED SOMEONE TO SHOW THEM THE RIGHT THINGS TO DO, THEY RIGHT WAY. SOMEONE TO LOVE THEM. MAYBE THAT'S THE SOLUTION TO THE PUZZLE."

Gaster rubbed his hands. "You have not seen what they are capable of. Even with Mother. That was only the smallest glimpse of their power." Papyrus paled, but Gaster cracked a smile. "But… perhaps you're right. Perhaps they just need good friends, or good puzzles, or mercy – plain and simple." His face hardened. "But that does not mean you should be actively seeking friendships with any humans you come across. You need to be careful, and alert me or the Captain of the Guard."

"AND WHAT THEN?"

Gaster's pupils disappeared, and he turned away. "The king has given his orders. They are to be taken to the Capital."

"OH, OK!" Papyrus scooped the half-cooked noodles onto the plate. "THE KING KNOWS WHAT TO DO! AND YOU'LL ALWAYS BE THERE TO HELP HIM, RIGHT FATHER?"

"As long as I can." Gaster wiped off his hands. "Finish up in here; you're better at this than I anyway. I need to talk to Sans for a moment."

Papyrus nodded, turning up the stove as high as it would go as his father turned away.

Sans was asleep on top of a quantum physics book, a self-sustaining tornado swirling on the table in front of him. Gaster touched his shoulder.

"wha- dad?"

"My apologies." Gaster sat down across from him. Sans shrugged, closing the book.

"what? is it dinnertime or somethin'?"

"No. Well, just about. I need you to come with me to the lab tomorrow. I need your help with this next experiment. It should be the last one."

"didn't you say that last time?" He rubbed his eyesockets. "it's real confusing, tibia 'onest. All of it." He motioned at the tornado, Gaster, and the quantum physics book.

"Sounds like you're really working yourself down to the bone."

It was so calm, so matter-of-fact, he almost missed it. Sans stared at him for a moment, uncomprehending.

"yeah. heh. what do you mean by 'the last one'?"

"The determination experiments are getting nowhere. After tomorrow, I'm going to turn them over to Alphys and move on to a new study. Perhaps she will be able to make sense of it."

Sans' eyes narrowed. "what new study?"

Gaster stood up, tapping the top of Sans' skull. "After tomorrow. Focus on one day at a time."

"NYEH!" Papyrus flew out of the kitchen, followed by a fireball. Sans jumped up, and Gaster flickered. The fire vanished.

Papyrus grinned triumphantly, holding up a plate of noodles, somehow both burnt and undercooked.

"SEE! I MADE IT JUST LIKE UNDYNE DOES! HAVE YOU MET MY FRIEND UNDYNE?"

Gaster cracked a smile. "I didn't know you two were friends."

"there's a lot of stuff you don't know."

Gaster nodded, rubbing the back of his neck. "You're right, Sans. And that's my fault. I- I'm going to try to do better, ok? After tomorrow. After this next experiment."


	13. What Do You Two Think?

"W-what happened?"

"huh. did the CORE just blow?"

"The CORE can't just 'blow', my son. I turned off the main power so there won't be any chance of an overflow. Auxiliary power is much weaker."

Alphys trembled. "Are you s-sure that aux can handle the –the machine, sir? It's so, it's so powerful…"

"I know what I'm doing, Alphys."

Sans peered inside the Determination Extractor. "gee, things are really going _down_ now, aren't they?"

Alphys giggled nervously, tightening her grip on her pen.

"S-shouldn't you be writing your Lab Entry, Sans?"

Sans pointed up at a pen and paper floating nearby. "already on it. what are we doing, anyway? i thought everything worked out. all the amalgamates are awake, even if they are a little… confused. nothing happened with the golden-flower-vessel-thing, but we didn't really expect it too. human souls, plants, dead monsters, what else can we stick a needle in?"

"A living monster," said Gaster.

Alphys tripped on her lab coat, and Sans dropped his pen and paper.

The Royal Scientist flipped several switches on the Determination Extractor, and it hummed to life.

"I'm going to inject myself with Determination," he continued. "I would like you two to act as witnesses, in case I am unable to record my own experiences." He pulled a syringe of the oozy red liquid out of machine.

It went flying across the room.

"dad, stop." Sans' eyes glowed blue as he stared down his father. Alphys was gone – cowering in a corner somewhere nearby. "that's not going to work and _you know it_."

The syringe flew back into Gaster's hand, engulfed in purple fire. Sans stumbled backwards.

"You cannot stop me, Sans. You never were strong enough."

"this is about mom, isn't it? all this time, all these years, you've never gotten over it. you weren't strong enough. you think this is going to make you stronger?"

"That's what I'm going to find out."

"it. won't. _WORK!_ what about papyrus, what about alphys? what's going to happen when you turn into one of _them_?" He pointed at the brain-dead amalgamates wandering past the door.

"It's not… not…. that's not going to happen. Something else. I can sense it. The experiments need to continue, and I can't ask anyone to completely sacrifice themselves. I cannot do anything to them that I'm not willing to do on myself."

"i'll do it!"

Gaster chuckled. "I'm sure you would." Sans' eyes shone, but nothing happened.

"Please take notes. You cannot stop me, Sans. After all…" He jabbed the syringe into his eye socket.

"I am filled with DETERMINATION."

"dad!"

Nothing happened.

Gaster blinked, looking down at his mutilated hands. "HP, Defense, and Attack are all nominal," he muttered. "No immediate pain, dizziness, or confusion. All FUN VALUES are… hm…"

He disappeared in a burst of static for a second, as if there was a bad connection. "The FUN VALUE has not changed. This is a set part of the timeline. Most timelines, actually. All timelines?" He flickered again, then shrugged, wiping his eye.

"I'll look into that later."

"dad?"

"Well Sans, I do think I will be able to record my own lab report," he said.

"D-doctor G-gaster?"

"Feel free to come out from behind the counter any time, Alphys. Everything is nominal." He rubbed his eyes, frowning a little.

"I will go turn the main power back on. It's dark in here."

"DAD!"  
"DOCTOR!"

"What?"

"Y-your head. It's – it's – it's…"

"cracking. and not metaphorically this time."

Gaster brushed his eye socket, feeling the hairline crack arching up his skull – less than an inch long, a drop of ectoplasm oozing out of the base. Nothing to be concerned about, a quick HP booster and he'd be-

His HP was full.

He couldn't heal if he wasn't hurt.

He waved it off. "Minor side effect of injecting a syringe into my brain. I'll take care of it later. Until then, the lights…" He vanished, and Alphys and Sans glanced at each other.

"if you want, i can-"

"P- please?"

Sans stepped into the broom closet, closing his eyes for a second. He could do this. He needed to-

Everything jolted to the right, and he was standing somewhere else. Gaster was standing in the breaker room, staring at all of the switches.

"Two cc's, by sixteen kilograms… .00013%? That's not nearly enough. .005%, minimum. For optimal results… Hello, Sans. What are you doing here?"

"i'm real flabber _gaster_ ed, thought i should check in."

Gaster chuckled, flipping three switches. "So, what did you think?"

"have to say, that was surprising. i've never really thought of you as 'impulsive' until now. could've died, y'know."

"I'm aware. But I'm still alive, aren't I?"

He frowned, looking down at his hands. "It was mildly disappointing, however. After my last experience with DETERMINATION…"

Sans stared at him. "you thought that that stuff might do _that_ to your brain?"

"There was always the possibility." He shook his hands, irritated. "This destroys my entire theory! Why hasn't anything happened to me? What makes them special?"

"they're completely different creatures. might be somethin' deeper. their biology. that they're all psychopaths."

"Psy- of course!" He vanished, and Sans sighed.

His phone rang.

"HIYA!"

"hey, bro. what's up?"

"HOW'RE THINGS GOING? ARE FATHER'S EXPERIMENTS WORKING OUT?"

"everything's… ok, so far. stay at home, ok? everything alright?"

"YOU KNOW, I RARELY GET SICK, BUT A FEW MINUTES AGO, MY STOMACH -STARTED HURTING! WHICH IS ODD, BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE A STOMACH…"

"paps…"

"WORRY NOT, BROTHER! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL STAY STRONG THROUGH THIS. ACK! WHAT IS FATHER DOING?"

A slow, gnawing pain began to seep through Sans. He knew that feeling.

"i've got to go," he said, hanging up before his brother could reply.

"did it once, do it twice," he muttered, closing his eyes.

Nothing happened.

"of course not. not in an emergency." He turned and began sprinting down the halls of the True Lab, skidding around corners and through empty rooms, trying to get back to the middle of the building. Something was going wrong. The pain was growing, seeping through gut, up into his throat. The last time he had felt like that…

"G-gaster, no! Please, stop!"

He threw the door open, crashing into Alphys. She was crouching near the control panel, her hands on the buttons but not doing anything.

"S-STOP HIM, S-SANS! M-MAKE HIM STOP!"

Gaster stood in front of the Determination Extractor, surrounded by empty syringes. He emptied a spurt of determination into his right eye, then turned around. Cracks were arching all across his face as he grinned at his assistants. Dark ectoplasm dripped down his lab coat and onto the floor, but he didn't seem to notice.

"At last we're getting results!" He laughed – a low, menacing chuckle. "It's dark in here, don't you think? What happened to the lights?"

"H-HE'S INSANE!" sobbed Alphys. Sans eyes lit up, but before he could do anything, a blast of purple light knocked him against the back wall.

"Don't interfere with vital scientific data, Sans!" sang Gaster, emptying another syringe into himself. Only his left eye was glowing, now. "I am – I am determined! It makes so much sense! I- I finally understand them…"

He looked up at the Determination Extractor. His creation stuttered and growled, the soul inside quivering from the strain. Gaster leaned over the safety bars.

"Such a want," he murmured. "Such a _need_ to live, to make a difference. No wonder they can reset. No wonder they can…"

The railing snapped. He fell in.

"DAD!" screamed Sans.

Gaster reappeared in front of them, his left eye shining purple, two wide cracks arcing across his skull. He grinned at his two assistants.

".so. . _dark_.. .dark. .darker. .yet. .darker.. the. .darkness. .keeps. .growing." The DTEX shrieked and quivered behind him, but he ignored it.

"W-what?" whispered Alphys.

Sans stepped forward, gently reaching out. "wingdings," he whispered. Gaster rubbed his head, muttering to himself in the old language. His bones looked strained, as if they were full to the brim with some sort of incredible energy.

"The shadows… cutting deeper. Photon readings… negative?"

He began flickering, cutting in and out of existence. Static fluttered through the room, buzzing through the machine, the monsters.

"This next experiment seems very, very interesting." He was beginning to melt – his skull deforming, his lab coat puddling around his feet. A sob was working its way up Sans' throat, but he couldn't move.

"What do you two think?"

"i'm sorry," whispered Sans. The DTEX was glowing red by this point , quivering, smoking.

Gaster's eyes cleared, just for a second.

"Don't forget t-"

The Determination Extractor exploded.

* * *

 _wake up._

 _please?_

The world was white – pure, bright, colorless. Sans was black – a silhouette. Nothing more.

Another black figure stood in front of him – a skeleton. Tall, broad. Not his father. It wore some sort of odd armor.

 _please wake up!_

He turned away, and the vision changed.

Gold. Not Grillby's fire. Not the sun. It was a hard, cruel color. Full of judgement. Full of pain. He was in a hall of some sort, something like you would see in a palace. He looked down.

Red. His hands were splattered with red liquid. Not determination. Not as bad as that? Or worse?

He could feel his LOVE increasing.

Red and gold.

 _sans?_

Just like that, the vision ended. He was back in the black and white. Still not the real world, but he didn't really care anymore.

The skeletal figure was still standing in front of him. Strong. Tall. But gentle. It held out a hand to him.

 _brother?_

Sans opened his eyes.

Papyrus started sobbing.

"I KNEW YOU'D MAKE IT, I KNEW IT! SANS? SANS, ARE YOU OK?"

Sans groaned. "dad…"

"THEY HAVEN'T FOUND DAD YET. THEY JUST PULLED YOU AND ONE OF THE LAB ASSISTANTS OUT."

"dad… he's gone." He struggled to his feet, looking around the wreckage. A hole had been blasted through the wall of the Lab. Everything seemed a little… off. He couldn't see out of his right eye.

"HE CAN'T BE! YOU'RE CONFUSED, YOU'RE HURT! S-SIT DOWN, LET ME HEAL YOU."

"i'm fine."

He wasn't fine. His HoPe was three. And somehow, he knew it'd never be above that again.

* * *

 **A/N- Shoutout to MatPat (of YouTube) for his theory about Gaster's disappearance (although I don't quite agree with all of it, I took the bottom line). And shoutout to Zarla (of Deviantart) for her beautiful drawings/ descriptions of healing, which I vaguely tried to describe with words.**

 **And hey, thanks.**


	14. Help I Ran Out of Chapter Title Ideas

The whole kingdom mourned the death of Royal Scientist W. D. Gaster. The CORE was a brilliant invention, and rumors of experiments with the Barrier and determination had spread through the entire kingdom. An incredible scientist, a general in the war, an advisor to the king.

No one knew exactly what had happened to him. His assistant, Alphys, was injured in the explosion, and just said that he "fell into his creation when one of his experiments went wrong". Which creation, she didn't say. Most assumed the CORE.

His dust was never collected.

* * *

"THEY'RE NEVER GOING TO FIND FATHER, ARE THEY? HE'S NOT COMING BACK."

Papyrus leaned against his brother, shivering. The lights were off, for some reason. Sans almost never had them on any more.

"no. he's not."

Papyrus curled up, whimpering softly.

Sans wanted to cry. He wanted to sob and choke and wail and then rub his eyes and wipe his nose and continue with his life.

But instead, he was empty. A numb, black hole had swallowed his soul. He had stood there and watched his dad kill himself.

And he hadn't stopped him.

What was going to happen? They wouldn't last long without some way to earn gold, and people would start asking questions, getting involved...

"papyrus, you can't tell anyone," he said. His brother sniffed.

"W-WHAT?"

"you can't tell anyone that dad is gone. they might... they might take you away."

Papyrus clutched Sans' jacket.

"CAN THEY DO THAT?"

"i- i don't know. but we can't let them."

"I DON'T WANT TO GET TAKEN AWAY, SANS!"

Sans rubbed his head.

"i won't let them."

Someone knocked on the door, and his eye lit up. Papyrus hid under the blanket.

"Oh dear... there appears to be no one home." Sans looked up. He could recognize that voice, even muffled, even through the walls.

King Asgore.

"You sure he lived here?" said another voice he didn't recognize.

"Well, no... but it's around here somewhere."

The other voice answered, but Sans couldn't quite hear it. They had moved to the next house. Papyrus was still shaking next to him.

"What do we do, Sans?" he whispered.

Sans grabbed his hand, pulling him up off the couch, and ran towards the back room. He was beginning to put together a plan - a risky, idiotic one, but he figured they didn't have a choice.

He wasn't going to let them take away his baby brother.

He yanked open the window.

"climb out. hurry."

Papyrus didn't hesitate or ask questions, tumbling down into a patch of Echoflowers.

Sans hesitated, then whispered, "we oughta go to hotland."

"we oughta go to hotland."

"we oughta go to hotland."

"we-"

He grabbed Papyrus' hand and began running, across the marshes, around Temmie Village, through every shortcut and backpath he could think of. His HP was already shaky, but he didn't care. Papyrus bounded next to him in long, even strides, so quiet that Sans almost didn't notice the tears trickling down his face.

"WHERE ARE WE GOING?" he whispered once they were clear of all the Echoflowers.

Sans glanced around. They were on the other side of Waterfall, now. Hopefully anyone on their trail would be thrown off by the Echoflowers, but he couldn't be sure.

It was a crazy, desperate plan, but he couldn't do it alone.

"grillby's. we're going to grilby's."

* * *

Things were quiet most nights. He liked it that way. There were the usual customers - some Royal Guards, a couple citizens of Snowdin, a sentry or two. Maybe it was unusual for an elemental - especially one with a past like his - to give up everything to become a barkeeper, but he was happy.

He drifted silently between the booths - filling glasses, serving fries, wiping up streaks of residue magic. It was late. Most everyone had gone home already.

"Didya hear the news?"

Grillby didn't look up as the customer ran in. If they needed him, they would let him know.

"What happened?" said someone else.

"The Royal Scientist got killed."

Everything suddenly was dark. Grillby clutched the counter.

The new customer, a fish-type creature (probably from Waterfall), nodded eagerly at the gasps.

"What happened?" asked Red Bird.

"No one knows fo' sure. His lab assistant was hurt real bad. She said 'e 'fell inta 'is creation'."

"Where ya goin', Grillbz?"

He shook his head, not bothering with Wingdings. No one could understand the sign language anyway. His chest felt tight and hot. The walls were closing in on him.

He needed to get outside for a minute.

Tossing his rag to the side, he closed the fire exit door behind him, and began running into the darkness.

"?Gaster?" he muttered. ".Gaster..."

He couldn't panic. He could _not_ panic. Just because one (probably drunk) customer ran in and started blabbing nonsense didn't mean...

Sobbing.

He skidded to a stop. A storm was picking up, but he knew that sound.

"not much farther..."

He knew that voice.

"SANS, COME ON..." Papyrus' voice was quivery, teary. Grillby spun around, trying to figure out where they were coming.

"PLEASE, BROTHER..."

"?hello?"

Two small figures were stumbling towards him, holding hands. Wind whistled through their bones. One of them tripped, and the other tried to pull him up. Green magic cut through the storm, but it was shaky, erratic. Not enough to heal.

"!Papyrus!"

The standing figure looked around wildly.

"?GRILLBY? !HELP!"

Grillby knelt next to Sans, pressing a bolt of green light into the boy's chest. Papyrus didn't let go of his brother's jacket.

".why. ?here?" asked Grillby, scooping up Sans and starting back towards the restaurant.

".FATHER. .GONE.," whimpered Papyrus. ".PLEASE. .HELP."

* * *

"H-hhot guys! I- I need h-hhhot guys!"

"Grillbz, where've you been?"

Grillby set Sans down in the snow, signing ".stay." to Papyrus before stepping back into the restaurant. Nothing had changed - the fish creature was still rambling on about what might have happened to Gaster, the tables were full, Lesser Dog was beating itself at poker. Grillby marched straight through the restaurant, flipped over the "open" sign, and pointed at the door.

Surprised muttering swept through the crowd. Grillby's never closed. The elemental was always at his counter, ready to dish out an order of fries or quietly remove a rowdy customer. Now he was kicking them out. One by one, they trickled away, muttering to each other.

".come." whispered Grillby as the front door finally slammed close. Papyrus peeked inside. Grillby picked up Sans and steered Papyrus up a flight of stairs in the back, up to his apartment.

His apartment was two rooms - a private kitchen and a bedroom. He laid Sans down in his bed, checking his HP again. Sans whimpered softly, his grin relaxing into something less strained.

".sleep." he muttered. Papyrus climbed up next to him.

".SLEEP." he agreed, clutching his brother's jacket. ".THANK- .THANK-" His skull drooped to the side, and he began to snore.

Grillby drifted back into his kitchen and sat down in the (almost) complete darkness.

"So, you're gone now," he muttered. "I knew it was only a matter of time before you did something stupid in your lab and..."

He didn't move, watching as the darkness out his window faded into grey, then into blue. Snow was falling, again. Snow was always falling, even though the piles on the ground never got deeper.

Gaster's children were still asleep, curled up together. Without waking them, he slipped back downstairs and reopened the restaurant.

"Hey Grillby, what happened?"

It looked like the crowd had stood outside his restaurant all night. He didn't ask.

"H-h-hhot guy! W-where's the hhhot guy?"

"Pet? Pet? Pet? Pet?"

"You've never closed all night before, Grillby. Then again, it's almost never night. H-has it ever been night before? Why am I always in your restaurant, I-"

Grillby moved behind the counter, wiping down glasses, waiting for orders.

* * *

"YOU'RE AWAKE!"

Sans groaned. "what happened?"

"YOU PASSED OUT. GRILLBY FOUND US AND BROUGHT US TO HIS HOUSE. ARE YOU OK?"

"yeah, i'm fine." He sat up, looking around the dark room. Muffled sounds - shouting voices, clinking silverware, shuffling cards - drifted up from the first story.

"he saved us again?"

Papyrus nodded. Sans shook his head. "i guess that means we'll each have to save his life at least once."

"BROTHER?"

"yeah?"

"HE'S - HE'S NOT GOING TO TELL THEM WE'RE HERE, RIGHT? THEY'RE NOT GOING TO TAKE ME AWAY?"

"paps, i'm never going to let that happen. 'sides, i don't think grillby would do that. for being made out of fire, he's pretty chill."

Papyrus stared at him for a second, then giggled. "HE'S COOL, ISN'T HE?"

"but i mean, have you seen him? he's kinda hot."

Papyrus collapsed on the bed, laughing. "SANS!"

Sans grinned.

"?awake?"

Grillby hovered in the doorway, holding two orbs of green magic. Papyrus started giggling again. Grillby raised a nonexistent eyebrow.

"thanks, grillbz."

"YES, MANY THANKS."

Grillby tossed them the healing magic, then sat down.

".what. .will. ?do?"

"what will we do? papyrus filled you in on what happened? well, i'll get a job somewhere, i guess. i'm old enough. find somewhere to live, avoid questions. we'll make it, but we couldn't stay in waterfall." He closed his eyes for a second.

"IT'S OK!" said Papyrus quickly. "EVERYTHING WILL BE OK! RIGHT, SANS?"

"y-yeah. if you say so."


	15. Beware

Determination. Perseverance despite difficulty. The desire to change fate. The desire to live.

The ability to continue after death.

Timelines shattered and branched off – mutating, creating, strengthening. He was a spirit – floating in the void, unable to do anything but watch as the code of the universe spun and twisted around him. The timelines weren't linear, like he had thought. Some crossed, some were completely separate. A tree, almost. They were alive. He could almost reach out and touch them.

 _Sans would love this_ , he thought to himself.

No he wouldn't. He hates all of this. He just wants to be normal.

Gaster flinched.

He doesn't want to know, or get involved. Only science freaks like you would love something like this.

 _Who are you?_

Who am I? Ha, funny question. You've never asked that before, have you? You've just been listening to me. Reading my words this entire time. You think you're the only one who's been in an accident with time and space?

He didn't say anything.

But it wasn't an accident, was it? You killed yourself, knowing full well what you were doing. In front of your _kid_. And they call me the sicko. We're not too different, are we, Wingdings?

 _I don't know who you are._

He turned back towards the universe of timelines in front of him, spinning and flying like little galaxies. Somehow, he was still in his timeline, but he was still watching all of it. He could still sense his own FUN VALUE – 66.

 _Loopholes_ , he muttered. _I'm stuck in a crack in time and space, right on the edge of my own timeline._

 _Where_ … _am_ _I_?

He could move, now, though he still couldn't see anything. He drifted forward, his hands outstretched, but after only a few steps, he felt a wall. He ran his hand up and down it until he found the corner.

He was in a box. A box made of the universe, a box made out of space and time.

 _Am I dead?_

Hm. Define "dead".

 _I'm… not dust._

He touched his ruined hands, then the two gashes in his skull. You're solid, so why don't you tell me?

 _Can I still…_ Gaster flickered for a second, but he didn't go anywhere. He was trapped - in the box, in the FUN VALUE. For now, at least.

 _What do you mean?_

I thought you didn't want to have anything to do with me. It's been ten minutes, and you're already getting bored. Eternity is going to suck if you're this impatient, Wingdings.

He sighed, defeated. _Fine. Who are you?_

A figure materialized in front of him. A child – a human. A human child with light skin and red eyes and a green jumper.

It's me. Chara.

Gaster's grin widened. _You are King Asgore's adopted child. You ended up here?_

You're certainly a genius, Wingdings.

 _That's my job description. How long has it been? Ten years? Fifteen years?_

When you're scattered between multiple alternate realities, time doesn't matter, does it?

Gaster sat down.

 _You don't need to narrate everything,_ he thought in an unnecessarily annoyed tone. He also breathed and blinked his good eye, even though _he_ didn't need to do any of that stuff.

 _Any words of advice for a newbie?_

Being the magical Royal Scientist, he was supposed to know everything. Yet life is full of disappointments.

 _Part of knowing everything is acquiring new knowledge._

There was a long silence.

 _So, you've been following me around, haven't you? I'm sure you had something to do with my… break with reality. I don't remember exactly what happened. Why me?_

Gaster was interesting, in his own way. It was so funny, watching him scuttle around, trying to solve all of life's problems. Protect his people! Build an energy source! Study determination! Solve the mystery, figure out why people kept disappearing, kept falling down. All the while letting his personal and family life crumble behind him. It was very, very interesting. And it could be useful.

 _I'm touched._ He turned away, scowling.

 _But they failed. Everything failed, and now I'm stuck here._

I - I mean, Chara - flickered and disappeared. The idiot hadn't even figured out the implications of "shattered across time and space". Only the biggest chunk of his psyche was trapped in the room. The rest was scattered through the world.

Gaster closed his eyes, stretching out his thoughts. He could… sense something. Himself.

Suddenly, he was standing in front of the Hotland elevator. He grinned, then looked around.

He was invisible.

Tropet was crouching in front of the doors, humming to herself as monsters scurried past her. She was filthy – her face and lab coat stained grey from rubble and asphalt. Her headscarf had fallen over her face, covering her eyes. She stared at something in her hand; he couldn't quite tell what it was. Smooth, white. She had drawn a smiley face on it with the dust.

"Gaster vanished without a trace," she sang to herself, "they say he's shattered through time and space."

His presence was getting pulled away, as if he was a mote of dust in a windstorm. He let it, felt -his mind somewhere else.

Lakys was staring dully at the CORE, his wide eyes glassy. Soot was churning through the air, but he didn't blink.

"How could he have fallen into the CORE if the explosion was in the lab?" he muttered.

And Gaster was gone again.

He was swirling, spinning, helpless. Faces flickered past him – some he recognized. Asgore, Asriel, Papyrus. Chara. Others were strangers, as if he was flying through a crowd, only their faces in focus. Pain. Suffering. Anger. Hope. There was the CORE - all he had dreamed, but now it felt worthless. He was suffocating. Drowning. How does it feel to not be in control, for once?

Then, it was cold. Snowdin. Nothing happened, as if the time and space had planted him there for a second. He looked around.

Grillby was leaning against the back of a building, staring into the woods. A cigarette was melting in his hand, but he didn't seem to notice, or care.

He didn't say anything. Barely ever did. The wind was tugging on Gaster again, but he fought it. He needed to stay. He needed to be with his friend, just for a moment.

"hey grillbz?"

Extinguishing the cigarette, Grillby turned towards the open fire exit. Sans walked towards him, his hands in his pockets.

 _Sans!_ Gaster couldn't move. His son paused for a second, looking towards him. He couldn't see anything.

"thanks for everything. seriously. if we hadn't died, we could've…"

Gaster cut him off with a wave of his hand. ".unnecessary.. .always. .will. .help."

"SANS?"

Gaster felt the tug again, knew he wouldn't be able to hold out for long. Papyrus shambled out, taking his brother's hand and smiling up at Grillby. He was taller than Sans, when had that happened?

Then, he couldn't fight anymore. The pull ripped him away, spinning him through time.

But at the same time, he was at peace. His sons were ok. Grillby had taken them in.

Well, they were ok for now. Who knows how long it will last – how soon Grillby would get tired of having two snotty kids hanging around his restaurant, how long he'd put off informing the sentries (who were in his bar every day) that the two kids were running from the king.

 _Shut up, Chara_ , muttered Gaster.

And he was back in the room. The timelines had faded away, leaving him in a grey void.

And he was okay with that. He needed some time to think.

* * *

 **I Guest as Much: Since I can't PM you, I just want to say thanks for the idea! I'll be using a variation of that for the next couple chapters, but depending on how long the story goes I'll probably use that as well.**


	16. The Man

Everyone was gone. Sans had vanished - she hadn't seen him since the day of the accident. Then there was Gaster. Dear Asgore, there was Gaster. At least Sans had tried to stop him, she had gone and hid. Just thinking about it left a bitter taste in her mouth.

And... there was everyone else. The other scientists. Lakys. Tropet. Dubius. One by one, they grew silent. They turned grayscale. Then, they just stopped showing up for work. One time she thought she saw Dubius, leaning against the wall in one of the CORE's corridors, but when she turned to talk to him, he was gone.

But she was still there. She was still alive and vocal and bright yellow. She was terrified.

She was alone now.

Well, not completely alone. All the subjects were still there. At least, for now – she would have to send them away, soon. Back to their families, back to their homes. They had people they loved, people they cared about. People that cared about them.

Alphys? Well, Alphys had a big old Lab, all to herself. She wasn't the Royal Scientist yet, but it was probably only a matter of time. Asgore was still reeling in shock from Gaster's death. You wouldn't think it to hear Gaster talk, but apparently the two of them were close. He hadn't chosen a replacement, the new Royal Scientist.

But she was the only scientist left in the kingdom, it seemed.

She leaned back against the leg of whatever table she was underneath. She spent a lot of time under tables, now, listening to the subjects wander around, talking softly to each other, waiting for her to come back. She crunched a square of instant noodles. They were better dry.

"Eat your greens." muttered two Vegetoids in harmony.

"I have a son, a little boy," Snowdrake's mother was telling someone. "He's so smart, so funny. Like his father." She ruffled her feathers. "Dr. Alphys?"

Alphys swallowed her noodles, curling in a tighter ball under the table. "Yes, Mrs. Drake?"

"Where are you? I'm not feeling... well..."

Alphys sighed, sticking the ramen into her lab coat and crawling out. The Vegetoids were rolling themselves around in a stretcher, and the bird-type was sitting on the floor.

"Slide over, you two." Alphys knelt next to Snowdrake's mother, frowning as the bird seemed to fade in and out of consciousness.

"I-I'm going to take you back to the operating room, o-okay? Then I can check your vitals, make sure everything's..."

"Wh-where's... Snow-y..."

She lifted the bird onto the stretcher.

Her hand came away sticky.

For a second, she just stared as a horrible, aching dread soaked through her stomach.

"Let's go!" She sprinted through the halls, pushing the stretcher, watching as sweat dripped down each of her subjects' faces.

"R-right, now, onto-onto the table..."

She grabbed one of the Vegetoids. Her hand sunk halfway through it, as if it wasn't solid anymore.

She shrieked, yanking her hand away, splattering the operating table with a sticky gray goop. The other Vegetoid wailed, trying to prop its friend up, chattering in its own odd language.

Alphys stared down at her hands, at her patients.

"Uhh... u-uhh..."

Mrs. Drake collapsed next to them, folding in half as she began to melt across the bed.

"Snowy!" she cried. "Sn-snow-"

She was gray now, her goop swirling and mixing with the Vegetoid's. Alphys tried to push her away, tried to keep them separated, but...

All three had melted completely. There was nothing left- no sign of their souls, no sound of their voices. They were just a puddle of ooze on the operating table.

Ooze, not dust. She touched it, tried to summon their souls. Were they... still alive?

She didn't remember falling, only the sound of her soul hammering in her chest. Scenes, pictures, were flashing by, so quickly she could barely see. Gaster leaning over his blueprints, doodling the word "determination" over and over. The subjects being wheeled in - dead, then not dead. The CORE. Tropet standing in front of her blackboard, ranting in couplets about the anomalies. Gaster melting. The subjects melting. The vessel. The flower. The dust.

Were her eyes opened or closed? She couldn't tell anymore. Somewhere, off in another wing of the lab, a howl rang out. A dog. Greatest dog? She had to help. She had to. That was her job. Another howl, cutting off in a sudden gurgle. Someone screamed. Again. Again. It wouldn't stop. She couldn't do anything, _WHY WOULDN'T IT STOP_?

Darkness.

Dark.

Darker.

Yet darker.

Then, it was done. Silence, other than her own gasping. She tried to hold her breath.

She crawled out from under the table, sitting on the floor, staring at a splotch of goop which had splattered onto the tiles. Gray.

Her claws were shaking, even more than they had after the accident. She couldn't do this. She couldn't do this. She couldn't.

"I - I can...," she muttered, pulling herself up and looking down at the stretcher.

She screamed.

The goop had... reformed. The three monsters were one being - an awful mutant - slimy and gray and half-formed. It whimpered, staring at her with six empty, pain-racked eyes.

"Sn...ow...y..."

"M-Mrs.- Mrs. Drake? C-can you h-hear me?"

"Sn..." The creature melted back into the bed, its two middle eyes closing.

"C̗͈͙̗̼̫̘o͙͖ḿ̳͇͟e̵̻̮̳̞ͅ ̢̞̝͚̪̭̭́j̱͇͈͙̟̩̘̰͇̀͢o͙̤̯̫͞i̶̸̶̮n̴̨̲ ̷̧͓͇͎̱͔t҉̲̫ḩ̵̹̤e̴̖͕̰̝̪̲̪͘ ̩̪f̴͔͚̱͜ṳ͙́͝ń̛̝̜̫͍̘̪͇͝"

Harsh, tinny. Alphys jumped backwards, tripping into something sticky, standing right behind her.

A bird-type with a long neck stared at her with one empty eye. Four other creatures stood behind it, so twisted and ruined she could barely recognize them. The bird collapsed into a puddle, then reformed.

She was sobbing, now, running blindly through the dirty, unforgiving halls of the True Lab.

"Wh-what have I done? What have I-"

She threw open a door, then stopped. Small, with rows of glass tanks and a flickering fluorescent bulb. The observation room. It was a dead end.

The cages were empty, other than the one containing the vessel. She winced. Ever since the accident, she had been basically neglecting the flower. It was surprising the thing was even alive at all.

"What have I done?" she groaned, rubbing her glasses on her coat.

"Don't worry about them. We were all dead even before you started prodding us with your needles." The vessel turned to face her, and she stumbled back. It had a face, now, sneering at her between the petals. It had the voice of a child – vaguely familiar, but she couldn't be sure.

"Wh-who - what?"

The flower looked down at its stem and leaves. "Wowie. This feels weird. I'm all... empty inside. Guess that comes from not havin' a soul. Wonder what happens if I-"

The world jolted, as if everything in the universe had been shifted two inches to the right. The flower chuckled.

"Well, well. That _is_ interesting. And I've got you to thank for it, Doc."

"Wh- who - what are you?"

It winked. "You wouldn't know, would you? You've got noooo idea what you're doin' in this big bad world, do you? I've gotta go, now. Thanks for keeping me locked up in a lab for two months!"

It reared back, and slammed its head against the glass of the observation cage. Alphys' soul lit up, its gold color flickering weakly. "Y-you can't leave!"

The flower laughed, stretching out, growing bigger more quickly than any plant she had seen, even with magic.

"Real funny, Doc. But I've got a question. **SINCE WHEN WERE YOU THE ONE IN CONTROL?** "

It shrieked in demonic laughter, and vanished.

Alphys collapsed to the floor, shaking. She summoned her clipboard, staring up at the broken flowerpot.

"The vessel h-has developed some sort of – of sentience? Unlike the other things, other people injected with determination, it hasn't melted, and seems to be malevolent. It's… I don't know where it went, or what its powers are, or whether I should tell the king? A-Asgore has no idea what we've – what I've - been doing…"

She crumbled up the splotchy paper, still shaking. She couldn't tell Asgore, he had trusted them, had trusted her, and she had made… She hiccupped, gripping her pen so tightly that the report was barely legible.

"the vessel is gone."


	17. Who Speaks

"UNDYNE? CAPTAIN UNDYNE? SIR?"

Maybe he would go away.

"SIR? MA'AM? CAPTAIN?"

Honestly, it was three in the morning. Couldn't be an emergency, could it?

"HOW DOES ONE PROPERLY ADDRESS THE CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD?"

It was that skeleton again. This was the third night in a row, when would he learn to-

"UNNNNDDYYYYNNNNEEEEEE?"

"WWWWAAAGHHH!" A spear flew through the window.

"we should probably come back later. sometime other than the middle of the night?"

"NO! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL NOT BE DAUNTED FROM MY MISSION."

"IT'S THREE IN THE MORNING, NERD. GO BACK TO SLEEP!"

He was still there. She could hear him breathing through the walls. How did skeletons even breathe?

"UNDYNE, SINCE MY LAST VISIT WENT SO MAGNIFICENTLY, I TOOK THE LIBERTY TO VISIT YOUR HOUSE ONCE AGAIN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT."

"Next time try normal visiting hours, 'rus."

She touched the doorknob, but didn't open it quite yet. "Whatdaya want?"

Someone yawned. Definitely not Papyrus.

"it's kinda rude to leave people out in the cold like this, lady. should we come back during decent waking hours or not?"

She opened the door. Defeated once again by the great Papyrus.

The, um, _enthusiastic_ , skeleton bounded into her kitchen, doing a few flips, because… ya know. Because.

Another skeleton plodded in behind him, rubbing his eye sockets. A lot shorter, in a blue hoodie. He looked familiar, but Papyrus was shouting again.

"YOU HAVE DONE A LOT FOR ME, UNDYNE. YOUR PROMISES, YOUR TRAINING, YOUR…" his eyes narrowed. "YOUR... FRIENDSHIP." He hesitated, like he was waiting for her to shut him up.

"ANYWAYS, I HAVE ONE MORE REQUEST."

"Well? Hurry up so I can go back to bed!"

"we-"

"MY BROTHER NEEDS A JOB."

"glad you have a degree in finesse, bro."

"Brother?" She glanced between them. Of course Papyrus hadn't just sprung out of the ground. He had to have family of some sort, right?

"You want me to give your brother a position in the Royal Guard?"

"WELL, NO."

"that sounds like too much work."

"AND YOUR HP IS-"

"-not important. so he was thinking that i-"

"SHOULD DO SOMETHING. ANYTHING AT ALL, REALLY, YOU LAZYBONES!"

Undyne groaned. "Whatever. What's your name?"

"sans ga- you know what, just sans. sans the skeleton."

Undyne picked up a handful of reports from Snowdin and Waterfall and ripped them all up. "There's some open sentry stations around Snowdin. You'd be on watch for humans and make sure there's no problems with the villagers." She rubbed her eyes. "Now get out before I wake up and realize what I'm doing!"

The brothers vanished, and she trudged back to her bedroom.

* * *

"SANS?"

"not… asleep." he muttered. "not… this time."

"MY STATION IS FINISHED! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE FINALLY COMPLETED ITS CONSTRUCTION!"

"that's great." His eyes were open. Right? He was definitely awa-

 _Blood splattered his hands and his scarf. Light filtered through the long hall, like sunshine. Red and gold._

 _Why was he wearing a scarf?_

Sans fell off his stool.

"BROTHER! YOU JUST FELL ASLEEP, _AGAIN?"_

"papyrus?"

His brother's fingers glowed for a second. "ARE YOU HURT? ARE YOU SICK? DO YOU NEED TO GO HOME?"

"nah, i'm fine." Sans clambered back up on his stool and leaned against his sentry station. "I'm bone-tired, that's all."

Papyrus sighed dramatically.

"THAT'S VERY COMIC SANS."

"what'd i tell you about breaking the fourth wall, bro?"

"WHAT? THAT MAKES NO SENSE! IF YOU'RE JUST GOING TO BOONDOGGLE, I'M GOING TO GO MAKE SOME PUZZLES!"

"what kind of-" Sans rubbed his eyes. "never mind." He jumped off his stool as Papyrus ran off. He couldn't fall asleep again.

He hadn't explored the woods at the edge of Snowdin, yet. The village, Waterfall, everything around there was basically the same. But why would there be a sentry station so far away from everyone?

He stuck his hands in his pockets and slipped into the shadows.

Woods.

Woods.

And… more woods.

But the path was definitely there.

As was the purple door.

Sans stepped out on path, looking up. It was at least ten feet tall, maybe more, made of some sort of cold metal. He tapped right above the handle.

A satisfying clang rang through the empty forest.

"knock knock," he called.

Nothing happened.

"who's there?" he squeaked in a different voice.

"doris."

"doris who?"

"doris locked, that's why i'm knocking." A classic.

He knocked again.

"who's there?"

"cargo."

"cargo who?"

"no, cargo beep beep."

Papyrus hated that one.

"knock knock."

"Who is there?" said a different voice.

He pulled back for a second, his eye lighting up.

"dishes."

"Dishes who?" It was a lady. An older lady, sounded like, with a gentle voice.

"dishes a really bad joke."

A long pause. He stepped away from the door, when a gentle knock rang out from the other side.

"who's there?"

"Datmay."

"datmay who?"

"Datmay be a really bad joke, but I think it's funny!"

Sans chuckled. "not bad. who're you?"

"Knock knock."

"who's there?"

"Old lady."

"old lady who?"

"I didn't know you could yodel!"

Sans raised an eyebrow. "heh. i see."

"If you ever need to learn how to tell a good joke, I'd be happy to give you a tu _toriel._ "

Sans felt like he had just heard a pun, but didn't know exactly what it was.

"Who are-"

"why didn't the skeleton go to the party?"

"Oh, why?"

"he had no body to go with."

There was a pause, then she started laughing – long, high giggles, as if that were the most hilarious joke she had ever heard. Sans laughed.

"wanna hear another skeleton joke?"

"Sure!"

"well, i don't really have the guts to tell it."

"Heehee! Oh, it's been so long since I've talked to anyone outside."

"hate to break it to, but i'm in a hole as much as you are. guess we're stuck between a rock and a hard place."

"Is Asgore still king?"

"huh? yeah."

"Gerson is Head of the Royal Guard?"

"nah, just retired. think he's setting up shop somewhere in waterfall."

"And Gaster is the Royal Scientist?"

Sans' eyes went dark.

"ah… no. he… there was an accident, 'bout two years ago, and…"

"Was he badly hurt?"

"no. he's dead."

There was a long silence.

"there's no royal scientist right now."

A branch crashed to the ground next to him. He closed his eyes for a second, pulling the strands of magic back into his soul.

"BROTHER?"

"Brother?"

"gotta go. knock to ya later, lady."

"Do come back, sometime!"

* * *

 **A/N: 'sup, nerds? I'd like to say thank you for sticking with this messy, crazy story thus far. If you want, please take a second to follow, favorite, or review. Anyways, while I'm here, I wanted to say that I'm considering posting a new series up within the next couple weeks. I've always been a big fan of AUs (at least most of them... yikes, you guys), and am working on a series of oneshots in at least some of the many, many universes. I know, I know, nothing you haven't seen before, but if that's something you'd be interested in, drop me a line! I've taken up enough of your time already, so thanks again! G'bye!**


	18. In Hands

Sans didn't look back. He was still in his slippers - trudging through the marsh, brushing aside cyan flowers.

"Found you!" giggled one.

"i love you, mommy," sighed another.

Sans kept walking. Sentry duty. Taking care of Papyrus. Grillby's. Nightmares. It all came together in a constant, endless cycle.

He was tired.

"Waterfall is so much prettier than Hotland!"

"Look, a falling star!"

"That's just a glitch in the sky, silly."

"What are you doing, Chara?"

A dozen different voices, a dozen different stories. Monsters didn't come this way very often. Those flowers might repeat their phrases a thousand times.

Sans sat down on the edge of a pier, looking down into the water.

He felt numb. Empty. He wanted to sleep, but he couldn't close his eyes.

"what's the point of life if you know that it's not even real?"

"it's not even real, not even real," sighed a flower next to him.

"How do you know?"

Sans didn't turn around. It was an unfamiliar voice. Silly, almost childish.

"I'm not saying that you're wrong. Just curious."

Sans reached out a hand over the water.

"can you feel it? it's almost like you can reach out and touch it. the screen. the code." He chuckled, closing his eyes. "nah, forgetaboutit. sorry for goin' all meta on you."

"There's a lot you understand. A lot that other people don't. Not your friends, not your brother. You feel so alone. So empty." The voice almost had a slier undertone. "I understand."

A wisp of blue light leaked out from Sans' eyelid. "and… who're you?"

"Your best friend. The one who knows. But we're not talking about me, are we? You. I've seen you before. You're so much smarter than all of them. They bumble around life, unaware of the SAVE points, unaware of the RESETS. But you know. You've been through so much, after all."

"so've you, apparently."

"More than you'd ever believe." The voice chuckled, moving closer to Sans. Something touched his shoulder. A tentacle? Or a vine?

He opened his eyes, but didn't look away from the glowing water.

"three days before we took our posts. that's when the last human came through. we never saw it, but undyne took care of 'em."

"It was weak. It only reset once."

"gave up, i guess."

There was a long silence. Sans began to wonder if the whatever-it-was was gone again.

"Your brother… he wants to be a Royal Guard, doesn't he? He wants to become a boss monster. He wants to matter."

Sans could see his eye's reflection in the water. "he _is_ a boss monster."

"You know what I mean."

"yeah. you're right."

"You've never told him?"

"told him what?"

"Everything. That nothing in the idiotic world will ever really matter. Not him. Not you. Not Asgore."

Sans said nothing, leaning over the marsh. He could almost make out the blurred reflection of a silhouette behind him, whispering in his ear. What was that thing?

"There's nothing you can do. When a human comes through, when _the_ human comes through, we both know what will-"

Blue magic shot through the darkness as Sans spun around to face whatever it was. Normally, he could sense other's souls and grab onto them, freeze whatever it was or control it for a few seconds.

There was nothing.

Whatever was speaking to him… it didn't have a soul.

All he saw was a grinning face, a flash of yellow. Then, it was gone.

And he was standing alone in an empty marsh.

The blue faded out of his eye, and he looked back at the water.

"We both know what will happen, don't we, Sans?" whispered the Echoflower.

Sans stared at it for a second, then turned around and trudged back the way he had come.

"shouldn't have gone meta," he muttered.

He turned and trudged back home.

* * *

"SANS?"

Something grabbed him and yanked him out of bed, shaking him awake. Light streamed in front of him as he opened his eyes.

"SANS ARE YOU INJURED ARE YOU HURT PLEASE BE OK-"

"mmgh?" he groaned. Papyrus' eyes shone green.

"yeah, i'm fine. what-"

Papyrus collapsed, sobbing. Sans brushed his face.

"it's just a nightmare. it's not real, i promise. what happened this time?"

"YOU WERE - YOU DIED..."

"again? that's nothing new, is it?"

"NO, IT- IT WAS DIFFERENT. IT WASN'T JUST YOU, IT WAS - EVERYONE. IT WAS YOU AND UNDYNE AND THE ROYAL GUARDS AND EVERYONE WAS GONE AND I WAS THE ONLY ONE LEFT TO PROTECT THE KING, AND I WASN'T STRONG ENOUGH! I WAS TRYING TO FIGHT THE HUMAN, BUT I COULDN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT YOU, AND... AND..."

Magic was flying around the room, sparking and glowing. Sans took his brother's hands.

"hey, shhh."

"I COULDN'T PROTECT YOU..."

"paps, what do you tell me every time i have a nightmare?"

".NOT. .REAL." sobbed Papyrus in Wingdings.

".what's. ?real?"

".RIGHT. .NOW."

"yeah. right now is real. and right now, i'm ok. you're ok. and if a human does come, it's not your fault, no matter what happens. it's all their fault. you are the strongest and the bravest and the greatest monster i know, papyrus."

"I'M SORRY I COULDN'T PROTECT YOU, BROTHER."

Sans hugged him, closing his eyes.

".sleep." he said softly, rocking back and forth as Papyrus' sobs slowly faded.

".i. .will. .protect. .you." murmured someone in Wingdings. Sans thought it was Papyrus.

Papyrus thought it was Sans.

* * *

"-no idea who she was, and i haven't been back since. you got any idea what that might've been about?"

Grillby leaned against the counter, not looking up from the mug he was scrubbing.

".in. ?Ruins?" he crackled.

"Grillby says that he has no idea what you're talking about, Sans," said Red Bird.

"yeah."

".have. .idea.." he hissed, his fingers moving quickly. ".unlikely., .though."

Sans glanced around the bar. No one else spoke Wingdings. Most of the monsters probably couldn't even distinguish it from the fire elemental's normal crackling.

"?well?" signed Sans carefully.

Grillby formed the letter "q-" with two fingers, but looked up as the door flew open.

"Asgore's coming~" trilled a rabbit-type. Chatter exploded through the room, and Sans leaned over his food.

".great." muttered Grillby, turning towards the kitchen.

"Grillby says that he's honored, and will start working on the king's regular!"

".i. ?go?"

".no.. .attract. .attention."

The door swung open, and Asgore peered in.

"Howdy, Grillby!"

The elemental nodded silently, motioning to a seat on the opposite side of the bar from where Sans sat.

"How've thing been going for you?"

".awful.."

"Grillby says that things have been great! Snowdin has been fantastic!"

Sans wasn't sure if Red Bird was trying to be funny. If so, they were doing an awful job at it.

"That's great!"

"Any reason you're this far west, Fluffybuns?" called someone from a booth.

"I- I've heard rumors that Tor- that someone's been seen around here." His head drooped a little. "Someone that I've been looking for for many years."

Grillby looked across the bar, where Sans was curled over his half-eaten fries. Ever so slowly, he made a fist and tapped the bar with his knuckles.

Knock, knock.

"Haven't seen anyone new 'round here," said the fish-type sitting next to Asgore. "No one new's come inta town for years. Not since Sans an' his bro."

"Sans?" asked Asgore. "Who's that?"

"?teleport?" signed Sans, wincing at the soft _snap, clap_ of the word. Grillby didn't move, clenching the mug in his hands.

"Why, 'im over there!" It pointed across the bar, and Asgore turned.

Sans grit his teeth and waved.

"Howdy!" said Asgore. "I don't think we've met!"

Sans half-bowed in his seat. "it's an honor, your highness."

"Oh, don't bother with all of that!" He looked exactly like Sans remembered – the kind smile, the purple cloak, the sad eyes. "You look familiar. Where are you from?"

"waterfall."

Asgore stared at him, thoughtful. "Sans…"

"SANS!"

The door flew open, snow flying in, a figure dramatically silhouetted. The door slammed behind Papyrus, and he marched over towards his brother.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? C'MON, WE NEED TO BE AT OUR POSTS! WHAT IF A HUMAN COMES THROUGH? OR WHAT IF UNDYNE COMES THROUGH, TO CHECK ON US?"

"Is this your brother, Sans?" Recognition was flickering in Asgore's eyes.

Papyrus recoiled at the sight of the king – stepping back, grabbing Sans' shoulder.

"SANS, WHAT-"

Asgore laughed. "Don't worry, I don't bite! Who are you?"

Papyrus glanced at Sans, then Grillby. The elemental nodded slightly, setting down the mug.

"P-PAPYRUS."

Asgore nodded. "Are you sure we've never met before?"

"i had a a job in hotland for a while," said Sans.

"Hm. Maybe."

"SANS, WE NEED TO GO."

"right. gotta go, your highness." He nodded back towards Grillby. "put it on my tab."

Grillby nodded, pushing a plate of fries and a mug of tea towards the king.

"So, you haven't seen anything at all? Heard any rumors? I know she's still out here somewhere, I was thinking-" Sans closed the door, cutting off the king mid-sentence as he leaned over the bar, talking to Grillby.

"?SANS?" whispered Papyrus.

".home."

Papyrus threw Sans over his shoulder and ran, sliding on the ice, diving through the front door.

"WHAT HAPPENED? IS HE HERE FOR US?"

"no, no he's not. i don't think he really recognized us, not at first. it's been a long time, and he didn't expect us here."

"CAN HE STILL TAKE ME AWAY?"

"no. you're an adult, now. it was just because you were a kid, an orphan, with no guardian-"

"REALLY?" Papyrus perked up. "THEN WHAT ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT? LET'S GO TALK TO HIM."

"might not be your best-"

Papyrus was gone, flying back out the door, towards Grillby's.

The elemental himself was standing outside, twirling a cigarette and listening to the king. Asgore still held his cup of tea and watched passerby, mumbling to the elemental in the 'privacy' of the road.

"Somewhere, I just can't think of where! Besides, they're skeletons, and you don't see those very often. The only two I ever really knew were Lieutenant and Doctor Gaster. What were their names again?"

"YOUR HIGHNESS!"

The king's eyes widened as Papyrus bounded up and twirled in an elaborate bow.

"MY APOLOGIES FOR BEING TO ABRUPT EARLIER! I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS!"

Asgore laughed, eagerly shaking Papyrus' hand. "Howdy Papyrus! Have we met before?"

Papyrus glanced at Grillby, who shrugged defeatedly.

"WE HAVE, BUT IT WAS A VERY LONG TIME AGO. I WAS ONLY A BABYBONES."

"i'm surprised you remember it at all," said Sans, walking over from the opposite direction of their house.

Asgore recoiled, looking between them. "Sans and Papyrus – you're Gaster's sons!"

Sans' grin didn't change. "Guilty as charged."

Asgore scooped them both up in a hug. "What happened? It's been so long – we looked for you two for over a year!" He looked up at Grillby. "Did you know?"

The elemental took a long drag from his cigarette.

"What happened? I was worried!"

"long story short, we ended up here. we've got sentry jobs, and everything's fine. thanks for the concern."

"'Long story short?' That's not going to suffice! Is there anything I can do for you? Any-"

"no thanks, i think we've got it."

"IT'S A REAL HONOR, THOUGH! GRILLBY SAID-"

".said. ?what?" asked the elemental.

"NOTHING," said Papyrus meekly.

Asgore glanced between them, and his face lit up. "Wingdings! That's right, you two know the language, don't you?"

"WHAT IS IT?"

"What's Wingdings? Didn't your father ever tell you?" Asgore shook his beard, flinging snowflakes. "It's the first language. Only the oldest species speak it."

".hi." said Grillby.

"BUT – BUT-" Papyrus looked down at his hands. "HOW? HOW CAN WE KNOW SOMETHING WE WERE NEVER-"

"Don't worry about it. Some things happen like that." Asgore winked, then glanced back at Grillby.

"You two oughta come by New Home sometime! We can have tea, catch up on what's been happening for the last fifteen years." He chuckled. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"THAT IT HAS, YOUR HIGHNESS! WOWIE, SANS, WE GET TO GO TO THE CASTLE!"

Sans nodded. "yeah. huh. well, it's been good, but we probably need to be gettin' home. it's pretty late, after all."

"DON'T BE RIDICULOUS, BROTHER! WE NEED TO HEAD BACK TO OUR POSTS. WE CAN'T GO TO SLEEP, WHAT IF A HUMAN COMES THROUGH?"

Asgore's eyes became very dark.

".let's. .go." said Sans quietly, and, for once, Papyrus didn't argue.

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry this is late. My new series, Beware the Man, is now up, with three chapters (Overtale, Mobstale, and Underswap) so far. If you like this story, or if you don't (why are you reading it?) but like AUs, please check it out! Thanks, y'all're the best.**


	19. Alphys May Work Faster

Something about being non-corporeal really made Gaster appreciate the stars. Back on the Surface, during the war, Lucida would sometimes point out the constellations when they were keeping watch. It wasn't much, but it was something to think about. Their EXPs were higher every day, and they were supposed to be creatures of mercy and kindness. It hurt.

Now, he was looking up at shiny rocks stuck in the ceiling, reflecting back on waist deep, muddy water. There were no constellations - they were put up in distinct lines. But it was the thought that counts.

"It's a beautiful view."

He almost lost his grip on reality. He knew that voice. By Asgore, he would never forget it. It was one of the two voices he thought he would never hear, ever again, no matter the time or space.

"You're right, Pecca."

The little dragon-type sat down, swinging their feet over the water. They were gray, now, all the cheery yellow had been leeched out. Their eyes were completely white - no pupils, no irises. They looked so, so sad. Not angry, not disappointed. Just sad.

"How are you here right now?"

"Ever the scientist. I don't know if I really even am. You're a Grayscale too, right? You don't exist – you're just a memory. An imprint."

"I see." Gaster looked back up at the stars, frowning as one flickered out. "It was an accident. I would never have erased you on purpose."

"It doesn't matter, now," said Pecca. "Your guilt has been bubbling up for ages. You erased me. You didn't save Lucida. You abandoned your boys. It all spilled out. It made... me. Ha, ha."

"I failed all of you. I failed Asgore, I failed Alphys. I- I'm sorry."

"Forget about me, Gaster. Please. Don't think about this anymore."

"Wait!"

Pecca glanced back at him.

"I don't have much time. And… I don't know what all you know or what you can do. But you're connected to the timelines, the same as I. Correct?"

The dragon gave a small shrug.

"I lost my foresight after my death. I can go back and time, and all over the Underground in the present, but I do not know what will happen in the future. Can- are you able to…"

"I will tell you what I see, Dr. Gaster." Pecca's voice grew deeper and louder, doubling and tripling until it sounded like there was a crowd of them talking at once.

"I see all of existence, all at once. I see a red cloud, heralded by a human child, consuming it from the inside. Bitterness. Despair. Pure, genocidal hatred ebbing from everything and everyone. But I see another. A second human child, glowing silver. They stand in front of the cloud, and are given an offer. They can destroy it, or they can finish its work. And there is no way anyone of this dying, desperate world can influence their choice."

* * *

Really, how many years do you plan on staring at that wall?

"I'm thinking."

Thinking. Of course. First time for everything.

…

…

It's just a plain, gray wall.

C'mon, Gast. Let's-

"Don't call me that."

There's something you probably would like to see.

Gaster groaned, standing up.

"Chara, for the last time-"

The child stood up, looking up at the hole they had fallen through. The Surface - the top of the mountain - looked so, impossibly far up. How were they not dead? They had landed in a springy bed of yellow flowers, but there was no way those could have broken their fall. Heck, the child hadn't even scraped their knees. They looked around, and –

"Where?"

Ruins, very entrance. Underneath Mt. Ebott.

The child felt like they were being watched, but that was ridiculous. Right? The cave they were in seemed to turn into a tunnel or hallway of some sort, so they began to walk.

They looked back, catching a glimpse of something - just a flicker in the shadows. They shivered, then kept going. The tunnel was warm and dry and dimly lit. Nice, almost. They smiled, then stopped as it opened into a larger, lit room.

A patch of grass grew in the middle, straight out of the stone floor, with a single golden flower growing through it.

A single golden flower with a face.

Unseen by the child, Gaster stumbled backwards.

"The vessel," he muttered. "The experiments- they worked?"

"Howdy! I'm Flowey - Flowey the Flower!"

The child screamed, scrambling backwards.

"A- a monster!"

The flower laughed. "You're new to the Underground, aren'tcha? Golly, you must be so confused."

"This is impossible," muttered Gaster.

Shut up, Gaster.

"Someone ought to teach you how things work around here!" The flower grinned, beckoning the child towards the light. They took a cautious step forward.

"I guess little old me'll have to do!" It winked, and the child giggled.

A red SOUL appeared in front of their chest.

"Determination. This - this is it. This is the final human," said Gaster.

Of course it is. Eighth kid to have fallen, seventh soul Asgore's trying to collect? Need me to do the math, genius?

"See that there? That is your SOUL, the very culmination of your being!" said Flowey. The child reached out, tried to touch it. Their hand passed right through.

"Your SOUL starts off weak, but can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV."

"What-"

"What's LV stand for? Why, LOVE, of course! You want some LOVE, doncha? Don't worry, I'll share some with you! Down here, LOVE is shared through little white... friendliness pellets!"

"It's going to kill them."

Of course. That's what you want, isn't it?

Gaster hesitated.

"This is wrong."

Well, wouldn't you do the same thing? Gaster had been blabbering on about honor and vengeance to the Riverperson, but wouldn't-

"No, I mean the vessel. Flowey. It shouldn't be alive, much less able to talk and use magic."

"Move around!" it exclaimed. "Catch as many as you can!"

The child raised one eyebrow, then stepped towards the bullets.

Their screams pierced the air.

Flowey laughed, its face twisting into a demonic grin. The child collapsed in front of it, coughing up blood. Their soul quivered, about to break apart.

"You idiot."

Gaster flickered away - apparently bored with the performance. Hey, where are you going?

"That thing can't take the human's soul."

As a disembodied, broken spirit, Gaster could not directly interfere. He flickered through the Ruins. Someone could help. Someone had to help. Not that there were many monsters in the Ruins – some Froggits, a Whinsum, one oddly familiar ghost-type. None of them were strong enough, especially if the vessel was as powerful as he thought.

"How?" he muttered. "After what happened to me..."

Determination melts monsters. Flowey isn't a monster.

Not entirely, anyway.

There was nothing. He didn't have time to go back out the Ruins, didn't have time to try to stop it himself. The human would be dead, and the flower would take its soul and obtain unthinkable power.

"Oh dear, that took longer than I thought."

He froze.

He knew that voice.

The queen looked exactly the same. Same purple robe, same bright eyes, same gentle smile. She had always smiled at him, when he came to report to Asgore. She was always kind, always merciful. Through the war, through the struggles Underground, he had never seen her crack.

Well, only once.

He hesitated. Toriel was a boss monster, the only one in the Ruins strong enough to fight a creature with determination. But that would put her right in the human's path. She was a pacifist - she had made that very clear. If the human attacked her...

He was wasting time. Seconds he couldn't spare were crawling away. The flower might have already killed the child and absorbed their soul, for all he knew.

He closed his eyes.

".save. .them." he hissed.

Toriel paused and looked over her shoulder.

"Napstablook? Was that you?"

".save. !them!"

She didn't know Wingdings. Maybe it was instinct. Maybe he got his point across.

She dropped her groceries and ran towards the entrance to the Ruins.

The child was curled up on the ground, crying as a ring of bullets closed in on them. The flower laughed maniacally, not knowing it was being watched.

She would never make it in time.

Then, the bullets were gone. The child's HP full.

"Huh?" Flowey glared at the child for a second.

Then, it looked over their shoulder.

For a second, its face melted into complete horror.

Then Toriel was there, blasting it with a fireball, sending it flying through the room. Gaster flickered back to the gray room.

I guess he's bored. Don't you want to see what happens? Last human, master of the fate of monsters, all of that?

Chara materialized next to him.

Hey! What are you doing? Don't you want to know what's going to-

"Give me a minute, ok?"

Pain arched up through the cracks in his skull.

"I thought the experiments had failed. I was dead, the vessel hadn't changed, the amalgamates were... well, you've seen them." He chuckled.

"Then that thing showed up."

Chara glared, twirling their knife.

Flowey doesn't matter. What mattered was that Gaster had dumped a human on the Queen and wasn't even bothering to check in on her.

Gaster vanished, flickering through time and space as if he were skimming through pages in a book.

"Wh-what kind of puzzles?"

"Here, take my hand."

The child shied away for a second, then took her paw, leaning against her as she followed a twisting path through a bed of spikes. Gaster watched carefully. The child seemed… different. They were younger – maybe seven, maybe eight, and they seemed to look up to Toriel. They certainly weren't trying to kill her, at least not yet.

"Puzzles seem a little dangerous right now."

"And always," said the child, smiling. Toriel laughed, walking into the next room.

The child hesitated, looking over their shoulder, back at the room. I – I mean, Chara – joined Gaster in the "invisibly spying on the human" club.

"It… seems innocent enough," he admitted.

It's very simple. So calm, so straightforward. Are those… morals, I'm sensing? Been a while since I've smelled those. Maybe it just Toriel's stench from the next room.

I reached out to the child's soul, pulling it out of their chest.

It's very young. Very weak. It'd be so easy just to touch it, and then…

A skull materialized next to Gaster, blasting me halfway across the Underground. The child shuddered, running towards Toriel in the next room.

I appeared next to Gaster, still smiling, brushing off my jumper.

Very funny. You're not actually… defending it, are you?

"I have seen no reason to terminate it just yet."

I laughed. No reason? Don't you want to get out? What about all that 'greater good' crap you've been spewing your entire career? What about revenge? What about-

"I never said anything about getting out," he said, interrupting me in the rudest way possible. "Do you really think the humans will be ok with us coming out? I just want my people to be safe."

"My child… I have a difficult request for you," said Toriel. "I would like you to walk to the end of the room by yourself. Forgive me for this."

The child squinted down the hallway, clutching their stick. Toriel was gone. They whimpered, looking over their shoulder again.

"Toriel?" they called. "Toriel?!"

They began running, whimpering, looking around as best they could without stepping off the path. Toriel stepped out from behind a pillar, and they grabbed her in a hug.

"Don't be afraid, my child! I was merely behind this pillar the entire time."

"I'm… I'm not afraid."

The child stuck their chin out, grinning nervously, and Toriel ruffled their hair. "Of course not. You're very brave, dear. However. there was an important reason for this exercise – to test your independence. I have some business I must attend to."

"Are- are you going to leave me?"

Toriel smiled gently, and – what's with that expression? Please tell me you're not buying this.

"I'm not," said Gaster. "But your mother has not changed at all."

She's not my mother.

The child sat down as Toriel left the room, clutching the stick in one hand and the cell phone in the other. For several minutes, they didn't move. Finally, they stood up, and peeked into the next room.

A Froggit sat glumly next to the path, but the child ignored it, running towards a pile of red leaves. They laughed, playfully crinkling around.

It filled them with DETERMINATION.

 **[Gaster flinched, then pretended he hadn't.]**

* * *

 **A/N:** **Hey guys, sorry about the mini hiatus. My laptop crashed, and I lost a lot of stuff. I'm going to keep both my stories going, but between my work/ lost files/ upcoming school year, it'll probably go to every other week. Thank you so much for everything, please follow or review if you haven't already!**


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